Sakuno is going to Hyotei!
by Charmane
Summary: As title says, Sakuno is going to Hyotei! Will she accept the fact that she will have to be around the Hyotei regulars constantly? Especially now that she's temporarily living with Atobe. DISCONTINUED. New, revised version will be up on New Year.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I just noticed that there are quite a lot of fan fictions of Sakuno going to Rikkaidai, but there are very few to absolutely none of those about Sakuno going to Hyotei. I wonder why that is. Is it because Rikkaidai is more fun to write? In actuality, I prefer Rikkaidai compared to Hyotei, but just for once, I'll write about Sakuno going to Hyotei INSTEAD of Rikkaidai.**

**Disclaimer: Tennis no Oujisama isn't mine, but I can dream and hope, right??**

* * *

** Chapter start**

* * *

"Sakuno, I'm sorry about this, but you _have_ to go to Hyotei. We haven't really been taking care of you that much and we have burdened your grandmother because of her taking care of you. Even though she says its no problem, we still want you with us."

"Demo, Okaasan..."

"Sakuno, please listen to me. We haven't been real parents to you at all, and we want to be. It's just for a year, just try to study at Hyotei, for one year. That's all I'm asking for. If you want to, you can go back to Seigaku after this. We won't pester you anymore. Is that a deal?"

"But...But..." After taking a glance at her mother, who was using the puppy dog eyes to plead Sakuno, Sakuno sighed, succumbing to that horribly cute stare that she had also inherited. Who said that having a lot of the same characteristics that your parents had was fun?

"Fine. I'll go, but if I don't like it there I can change back to Seigaku, right? And I'm also able to meet up with them whenever I want, right?"

"YES, YES ANYTHING YOU WANT, AS LONG AS YOU COME AND STAY WITH US FOR THE NEXT YEAR!!"

"Okaasan...your (gasp) choking (huff) me!!"

"Oh, oh. Gomen!! Demo, Saku-chan, you're finally going to live with us!! I promise I'll go shopping with you, and buy you the newest style of clothes and..."

Sakuno and her father, Renji Ryuuzaki, only listened with half an ear of Ringo Ryuuzaki's long blabber of promises. They exchanged a quiet conversation, whilst Ringo droned on and on and on about what they would do after Sakuno moved to her parents' new house.

"Oh by the way Sakuno, do you know anybody from Hyotei?"

"A...anou...Some people, but it's not like I'm really friends with them or anything...I only met with them during tennis matches, when I go cheer for senpai-tachi and Ryoma-kun..."

"Well! Perfect! At least you _do _know _some _people. We have a business partner's son studying there. He and his best friend are in third year. We've met him before, and he is a sweet and charming boy. He offered to show you around, and it would be a really great opportunity for you to further strengthen our bonds with their company if you become friends with them, don't you think, Renji?"

"Well, yes of course, but only if Sakuno wants to be friends with them. Don't you think you're somewhat forcing her to be friends with them, Ringo?"

"What? Me? Me, forcing Saku-chan to befriend our business partner's son? Renji, how could you? I thought you thought of me better than this."

Renji smacked his forehead, wondering how in the whole colossal Universe he could fall in love with the biggest drama queen ever. He remembered the last time he spoke with one of the firms that Ringo had tried out for acting; the manager there had told him she was too much of a drama queen for them to hire her.

'_Well, we all fall in love with the person we're not supposed to. Romeo and Juliet bucked the system, Superman has a thing for Lois when the better match of course, would be with Wonder Woman. But it does make things more fun if there's a drama queen in the house. At least Sakuno isn't a drama queen. I would die because of that.'_

Sakuno leaned back on the couch, wondering how on earth people said that she is _exactly_ like her mother. Her mother –for lack of a better, more polite term – was such a drama queen. She doubted her mother was as shy as she was when she was 15. Sure, they had the same honey-brown coloured hair, the same complexion, but she didn't have anything else that was similar to her mother. She would've said that she was more like her father and argued with anyone who denied it. Not that she had the guts, but...

"Ding Dong!"

"Oh! My package must have arrived!! Saku-chan, come and tell me whether you think the dress looks great on me or not!!"

And without even letting Sakuno get a word in, Ringo literally dragged Sakuno off to get her new package. Renji sweat dropped at the sight of his mad, cheery, lovable wife pulling (a.k.a. forcing) his sweet, shy daughter to give comments on her beautiful new dress. Leaning back on the expensive, soft sofa, Renji closed his eyes, meaning to doze off when the shrill ring tone of his cell phone went off. Reaching over to pick it up and wishing that it was something unimportant so that he could quickly get back to sleep; Renji stifled a yawn before answering it.

"Moshi moshi?'

"Ryuuzaki Renji speaking."

"Renji-san? Kaname speaking."

"Hai. Kaname-san? What is it that you want?"

"There's nothing that I want, Renji-san, but there is a ball being held tonight. You are required to attend, as do Ringo-san; after all, you are my deputy head. Don't be late now. I still need to discuss with you about the documents you finished last week. That's all, see you."

"See you."

At the ball

"Ah, Kaname-san. You're finally here."

"Hn. If it wasn't for the fact that a certain_ someone_, had to recheck all her makeup and so on, we could have been here an hour ago." Kaname stated, glaring at his half-Chinese, half-Japanese wife, Tsukino.

"Tsk tsk. Men, they never know the art of dressing up, that is why we women have to do so many things for them. Don't you agree, Tsuki-chan?"

"Of course, of course. These two here are perfect examples."

"Women and their love for fashion." Renji whispered to Kaname.

"Men and their horrible fashion sense. They choose the bishoujos to chase after, yet they all look so ugly." Ringo said this loud enough so that Kaname and Renji could here this. "Right, Tsuki-chan?"

"Absolutely, Rin-chan. Why don't we leave these baboons alone and find other people to spend our time with instead?"

"Delighted, Tsuki-chan."

Saying so, both head strong, attractive women went off, leaving their husbands to stare at them with their jaws hanging open. After pulling himself together, Renji started to converse with Kaname about political matters, etc.etc. Their talk turned to Sakuno transferring to Hyotei.

"Well, if anything happens to your daughter while she is at Hyotei, I assure you, I will deal with my son."

"Surely that would be a bit harsh? After all, Sakuno is 16; she should be able to look after herself."

"Renji, you do not know _anything_ about the school. So it's best to just don't argue with me."

"Since when were we on such friendly terms that you use my name without the 'san'?"

Kaname stared at him.

"What? I meant it."

"Never mind. You can call me Kaname if you want to. We've been working with each other for 15 years now; surely we can call each other by the first names?"

Renji just stared at Kaname.

Last day before Sakuno moves

"Mi-minna-san...Tomo-chan...I thought you all would like this..."

Sakuno was stuttering again. She held out a rather large bag, in it was filled with several things, all neatly wrapped with bright, colourful wrapping paper that had Sakura blossoms on it. Checking the time on her watch, she gave an exclaimation of surprise.

"Gomen! I have to go now, goodbye! Ja, Tomo-chan!"

"Sakuno! Matte!"

Tomoka couldn't stop her best friend since elementary school from dashing off without another word. She was left standing at the doorway, watching Sakuno zoom off to the school gates. The normally loud, cheerful and boisterous duo (Eiji and Momo) was silent, especially Eiji. Momoshiro on the other hand, looked like his burger got stolen. Fuji's eyes were like slits, revealing the tiniest bit of his sharp turqoise eyes. Kawamura was just staring into empty space. Oishi look flustered, Inui was scribbling down data while Echizen sipped on his ponta. Tezuka on the other hand remained stoic.

Oishi handed out the presents gradually, after discarding the empty bag; he sat down, opening his present. Eiji had given a squeal of delight at first, but sobered up almost immediately when he remembered he was getting this because Sakuno was leaving Seigaku. His gift contained his favourite toothpaste and her homemade brownies. Momoshiro's was filled to the brim with cakes of every flavour imaginable. Fuji's packet on the other hand, was full with a few Fuji apples, rolls of film and wasabi sushi. Kawamura's was a book, one which Sakuno had written every sushi recipe that she knew into. Oishi's was several packets of fish food; Inui's was 2 new black data books, Ryoma received some toys for Karupin, a voucher for buying ponta, a couple of tennis balls and a silver pen. Tezuka got a bag of tea leaves and grip tape, along with a few pieces of Sakuno's best chocolate-vanilla cake.

It was a subdued group that left the clubhouse later on.

Ryoma dashed home as quickly as he could, wishing to disappear before his senpai start bugging him about whether or not he felt sad that Ryuuzaki was leaving. In actuality, he was. In fact, he felt more than sad. He felt abandoned; as if Ryuuzaki had left him alone to go to Hyotei on purpose. He stretched on his bed, giving Karupin his newly acquired ball, wishing that Ryuuzaki would leave his thoughts once and for all. But it didn't; if more than anything, the more he tried not to think about it, the more he thought of Ryuuzaki. The situation continued on throughout the day, even till he went to sleep, he dreamed about her.

After getting hopelessly lost on the way to her new house

Sakuno groaned softly in dismay. "I can't believe I actually_ lost _the way to the new house...And I made sure I memorized it too. I'll have to ask for help..."

A voice called out.

"Are you by any chance, Ryuzaki Sakuno?"

* * *

Owari

* * *

**A/N: So was it good or bad? Reviews are always welcome. I don't mind flames, as long as they tell me what they don't like about this story. Flames show that the person who sent a flame is giving constructive criticsm. Well, as far as I see it I mean. So R&R please!! **


	2. Enter the School

**A/N: Here's the second chapter. Enjoy! I'm posting this up today because my computer got a lot of viruses. Infected. All thanks to my wonderful school's computer labs. All the computers in school got a virus, and since we had to finish our assignment home, and my pendrive got a virus courtesy of the school comps, and it's destroying a LOT of stuff, I decided I better post this first. So, I'm sorry because I won't update again until my computer is RID of the darned viruses. Furthermore, I got exams, and won't be able to continue it for the moment. Oh, geez, enough with the ranting. OH, before I forget, many thanks to those people who read and reviewed! Special thanks to Lewnuhhkau for giving this story it's first review!  
**

**Disclaimer: See first chapter.**

* * *

Chapter starts

* * *

"Are you by any chance, Ryuuzaki Sakuno?"

Sakuno turned around to see the speaker. She recognized the voice, seeing as she had heard it quite a few times. She was not surprised to see a tall boy with flipped out silver hair, a mole under his right eye standing right behind her. "Well?"

"Ahh...H-hai, Atobe-san."

Sakuno felt herself blush faintly. Atobe-san was her parents' business partners' son? Oh Kami-sama, she was sure she was going to get trampled by his fangirls before she even managed to set foot inside Hyotei.

Atobe squinted at her. "You look familiar..."

Atobe racked his brains to try and remember where he saw Sakuno before. Her twin braids served as a reminder.

"Ah, you're Seigaku's tennis coach's granddaugther, correct? Ore-sama didn't know that you were Ryuuzaki-san's daugther. Hmm, now that ore-sama thinks about it, you do have Ringo-san's eyes, and Ryuuzaki-san's hair colour."

Sakuno was at a lost on what to say. She just stared at Atobe while he was stating out his thoughts. Sakuno was already awed by his aura of confidence and his ability to put all eyes on him when she first saw him at the matches. She had only felt admiration, and was always those admirers from afar. Now, she was possibly going to have to go around Hyotei with him as a sort of tourguide for the first few days. Her train of thought was broken by Atobe.

"Come on now, it's already a bit late. Ryuuzaki-san, Ringo-san, Otousan and Okaasan are already expecting us."

Atobe started trotting off, picking up Sakuno's small suitcase. Sakuno followed behind him, unsure of what to do and say. Atobe was wearing his Hyotei uniform. Sakuno guessed that he had taken a day off tennis practice just to bring her to her new home. From what Ryoma had told her, he was a dumb saru, and definitely practiced tennis everyday. She had heard of rumours that Atobe's academics was also good, and that he was the student council's president in Hyotei. Now she'll be able to find out if it's through or not.

"We're here."

Sakuno looked up, startled. She had been thinking so deeply that she had barely noticed that they had already reached her house. Sure enough, her parents' description of it was matched perfectly. There were two sakura trees at the gate to her home, the petals dropping to the ground as if like confetti, or a carpet, waiting to greet whoever it is that was going there. When she stepped in her yard after Atobe, Sakuno gasped. There was a lovely koi pond, several trees, a hutch for her mother's pet rabbits, an aviary for her father's exotic birds, a lake somewhere farther away, rose bushes leading the way to the majestic doors...There were endless things that Sakuno could talk about the outside of her new home and while she was busy admiring the landscape, Atobe rang the doorbell. The doors opened. An old butler bowed down, saying:

"Welcome, Keigo-sama, Sakuno-sama."

* * *

In the living room

* * *

"Do you think that Sakuno will, well, be happy at Hyotei?"

"How hard can it be? Look at Keigo-kun, he passed his school life with flying colours!"

"Well, that's Keigo. Sakuno is the exact opposite of him."

"I agree with Kaname."

"Awww...But I'm sure Sakuno will be able to get new friends there, right?"

An awkward silence ensued.

"Right?"

* * *

Back with Atobe and Sakuno

* * *

Sakuno glanced with nothing less of acceptance at the interior of her new home. It was typically her parents style. Rare paintings, antiques were obviously her father's, the sweet, fashionable covers, curtains and so on was undoubtedly her mother's choice. She had almost forgotten that Atobe was with her as well, until they came to the living room. Her mother had shrieked her welcome to Sakuno, hugging her as if she would never get a chance again and announcing her gratefulness to Atobe for bringing Sakuno to her home.

"It really was no problem at all, Ringo-san."

"You told us dozens of times about that before, but I still think you shouldn't have given up your time just for Sakuno-chan!"

Sakuno then remembered that Atobe had went to fetch her while still wearing his uniform. She was horrified, immediately bowing down and apologizing to Atobe for taking up his precious time. Atobe wasn't the one that answered though, his mother did.

"Sakuno-chan! Don't stress yourself out with this. After all, Keigo volunteered at first. Anyway, he has tennis practice almost everyday, he should take a break once in a while."

"D-demo..."

"Now stop fretting Sakuno! Keigo shall bring you to Hyotei tomorrow morning, and his friend, Oshitari Yuushi shall be joining you as well. Both of them shall show you around."

The rest of the evening passed by peacefully, but Sakuno couldn't help thinking that the first thing that would happen the next morning when she stepped into Hyotei, she would most probably be trampled by the stampede of Atobe's and Oshitari's fangirls. Something else drove those thoughts away from her mind. Her mother had just told her that the Atobes' were going to stay at their home for the next month or so, as their houses were going through complete renovation.

"So they'll be staying her, and I want you to treat them nicely, like family, Sakuno. I doubt your unable to do that though, you're always so polite. Anyway, Keigo-kun's room is right next to yours, Kaname-kun and Tsuki-chan's room is along the sorridor where ours is. You'll be starting at Hyotei next week, all your things – unifrom, bag etc.etc. have been bought. Tomorrow Keigo-kun will give you a tour of Hyotei after he finishes his tennis practice. OH SAKUNO-CHAN I CAN'T BELIEVE IT YOU'RE REALY GOING TO HYOTEI!!"

Ringo had just gone from sane being to someone who should be put into a mental asylum. She had started glomping Sakuno. Sakuno now felt releived that Eiji-senpai always did that to her. Now she could at least breathe for a few extra seconds before starting to suffocate.

"Okaa...san...! Can't...breathe...hel...p!!"

Ringo, finally let Sakuno go. Her amber eyes practically shone with delight at having her only daughther with her again. Eyes resting on the granfather clock nearby, she gave an exclaimation of surprise.

"Is it that late already? Sakuno, you really should go to sleep now. Keigo-kun wakes up rather early in the morning, and you're to go to Hyotei with him as well. Oyasumi, Sakuno!"

"Oyasumi, okaasan."

Sakuno ascended the grand staircase to her room. It was all done in pink, purple and blue. Kurosaki-san, one of the maids had already unpacked everything and put her clothes away neatly. It was only the teddy bears she collected, her books and personal effects that were left. Rearranging her teddy bears again and again kept her occupied, as she tried not to let her thoughts stray to what will happen tomorrow. Meanwhile, a certain gray-haired diva was on the computer chatting to his friends.

* * *

In MSN chat room

* * *

**Koori no Emperor: **Ore-sama demands that Shishido and Gakuto stop fighting now!

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **What was that you said about me you red-headed girly asshole??

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!****: **Sheesh, can't you scroll up and read? I said that you totally suck in fighting! I mean, that werewolf like monster, Akutsu from Yamabuki can so totally kick ass better than you do!

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **You should know better than stopping those two from fighting Atobe.

**Choutarou The Believer: **Senpai, please stop fighting!

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **I believe I just told Atobe that it was useless to attempt to stop them, Choutarou.

**Choutarou The Believer: **Demo...

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Since when did you change your screen name, Chouta? Gekidasa daze na.

**Choutarou The Believer: **I think nee-san changed it. I'll change the name again when I find one I like.

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **Oi, Shishi-no-baka! Or perhaps I should call you Sissy-no-baka? I was fighting with you dammit!

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **What the hell did you call me? You stupid cherry head!! Anyway, that's the stupidest screen name I ever seen in my entire life!

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **WTF!! Cherry head?? How dare you insult me you...you...

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Can't think of an insult can ya, cherry head? )

**Koori no Emperor: **Ore-sama demands that you all stop this instant! Or else ore-sama shall kick all of you off the tennis team FOREVER!!

**SleepingBeautyJirou: **Zzzz...

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Since when was Jirou in this chat room?? Hey, he's using his webcam isn't he?? He wouldn't type that at all if he was awake!

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **Yeah, thanks for telling us something we already know, porcupine head.

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Gekidasa daze! That nickname's reserved for that psycho power dude on Seigaku, remember? That snake Kaidoh gave him that nickname. So unoriginal, cherry head. Right, Kabaji?

** Kabaji : **Usu.

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **WHAT!

**Koori no Emperor: **Ore-sama also agrees with Kabaji and Shishido.

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **WTF!! Yuushi, help me out!!

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **Unfortunately I agree with them.

**SleepingBeautyJirou: **Agree about what??

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Never mind. Get back to sleep Jirou.

**SleepingBeautyJirou: **OK!

**Koori no Emperor: **WILL EVERYONE LISTEN TO ORE-SAMA!!

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Woah, he's really pissed.

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **It would be better if you didn't aggravate him more.

**Koori no Emperor: **As ore-sama would like to announce the reason for him asking you all to be online at precisely 10.00pm and get back to sleep as soon as possible, ore-sama wishes that you all will NOT interrupt me when I talk.

**Choutarou The Believer: **Hai, Atobe-san.

**Koori no Emperor: **Good. I'm sure you all know Ryuuzaki Renji-san, right?

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Hang on, that name sounds familiar...

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **Asshole, Ryuuzaki Renji is the owner of Ryuuzaki Corps, in other words a tycoon whose wealth can rival Atobe's.

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **And this has something to do with us how?

**Koori no Emperor: **His daughther, Ryuuzaki Sakuno is transferring to Hyotei. She is originally from Seigaku.

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **His daughther originally from Seigaku is coming to Hyotei. So? Wait, WHAT?

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **From Seigaku?! You've gotta be friggin kidding me. I mean, she shares the last name as their weird old coach, and I'm sure I seen her before in some of the matches. She's the one with the abnormally long twin braids right? She was with that witch-like hag, the one that was screaming 'Ryoma-sama! Ryoma-sama!' the whole time. She nearly made me deaf!!

**Choutarou The Believer: **Shishido-san, that's a bit mean.

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **So was that the reason why you wanted us to go online? Really, that's a waste of time.

**Koori no Emperor: **Ore-sama believed ore-sama has told you all to not interrupt ore-sama until he is finished?

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **Summimasen, Atobe.

**Koori no Emperor: **Tomorrow after tennis practice, I'm going to show her around the school. She will also be watching us during tennis practice, so I expect all of you to work hard. We do not want her to think that Seigaku is better than us at tennis, ne Kabaji?

**Kabaji: **Usu.

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **Hm. And I guess you're staying at her home then.

**!TheAcrobaticTensaiGakuto!: **WHAT??

**Ass Kicker Shishido: **So Ryuuzaki-san's place is where you and your family's staying at until your house is finished getting renovated? No wonder.

**MartialArtsMasterHiyoshiWakushi: **Hn. Gekokujyou.

**Choutarou The Believer: **Hiyoshi! You're finally online! I meant to ask you about the Biology homework that Tanaka-sensei set. Is it 3 pages long or 4?

**MartialArtsMasterHiyoshiWakushi: **3

**Choutarou The Believer: **Oh, arigatou.

**SleepingBeautyJirou:** Sakuno-chan kawaii ka?

**Koori no Emperor: **Decide that yourself tomorrow. Ore-sama is going to sleep. 8.00 am sharp, Oshitari.

**#Hyotei no Tensai#: **Hai.

* * *

Next morning in the dining room

* * *

Sakuno and Atobe were the only two around, since their parents had left for work at around seven. It was nearing eight, and both of them were almost finished with their meals. Atobe was reading the newspapers, Sakuno merely enjoying what she hoped was not her last meal on earth. At 8.00, Atobe took his tennis bag and her small bagpack as well. Sakuno stammered out her thanks, wishing that the dreaded day would end soon.

Outside the gates, a certain blue-haired tensai of Hyotei was leaning against the wall, slightly impatient as he wanted to see how this Sakuno looked like. As the iron gates opened, he narrowed his eyes, preparing to give Atobe a lecture, until he saw him carrying his usual tennis bag and a small bagpack, blue in colour with a keychain of a red cat.

Oshitari, a proud tensai of Hyotei Gakuen was speechless. Speechless. With a capital S. Was he imagining things, or was there something wrong with his eyesight? He had better go to the optometrist to check his eyesight. His captain, Atobe, was _carrying_ a bagpack. For a girl. Just who on earth was this Ryuuzaki Sakuno to be able to make his captain act that way?

Atobe walked up to him, and behind him, he saw a young girl with amber, doe-like eyes. She was wearing a light purple tennis skirt and white sports blouse. What was the most eye-catching though, was her unusually long twin braids.

"Daijoubu ka?"

Oshitari returned his attention to Atobe, who was talking to the girl, Sakuno.

"H-hai."

She stammered, Oshitari noted. It seems as though she's scared. But of who or what? The rest of the walk on the way to Hyotei was uneventful. Oshitari tried numerous times to get Sakuno to talk, but to no avail. She was just too shy. Atobe didn't seem to want to converse much, and Oshitari left it at that.

When he saw the looming school gates, he noticed that Sakuno was walking a bit behind Atobe, who had bent down whispering things to her and he was behind them. He managed to catch a few phrases of Atobe comforting her._ 'She's scared, and Atobe is comforting her? Ryuuzaki Sakuno, you managed to do something that no other girl has done to Atobe before. You managed to make him show that he cares. Things are bound to get interesting.'_

Sakuno was unaware of Oshitari's thoughts, and listening to Atobe's whispers of comfort, shut her eyes tightly, expecting the worse to happen when she stepped into Hyotei Gakuen middle school.

* * *

Chapter ends

* * *

**A/N: Bwahahaha! Another cliffie, sort of. As always, reviews are welcome. And I hope I didn't make Atobe or Sakuno OOC. If you think they are, tell me. I'll attempt to fix it.**

**Jap. Glossary**

Oyasumi - Goodnight

Koori no Emperor - You should know this. Emperor of Ice. I sometimes wonder if Takeshi Knomi-sensei is toying with us, I mean Hyotei literally means that.

Gekidasa daze - Way uncool / lame. Shishido's catchphrase.

Tensai - genius

Daijoubu ka - Are you all right


	3. Chapter III

**A/N: I finally finished…… Chapter three of Sakuno's going to Hyotei……I'm dead tired…Actually, I had already typed it out…….Unfortunately, due to the darned virus that I told you guys about in the last chapter, I had to reformat the computer. Unluckily, it was my sis who took it to the shop. I told her to ask the guy who was reformatting it save everything that was in the 'My Documents' file onto the new hard disk. He did, but strangely enough I couldn't find the 3****rd**** chapter of this…….Not to mention I lost a whole bunch of other information as well for my Geo homework……..DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN!!**

**Oh yes, before I forget, this chapter is a birthday gift to ezyl's girl, who shares the same birth date of "King" Atobe. **

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Today, we will have Atobe Keigo, captain of the Hyotei team to do the disclaimer, as it is his birthday. Rounds of applause!**

**Atobe: Ore-sama bigi na you ni! (Be awed at my prowess! At least, I think it means that…I only watch the Chinese subtitles of the show and read the Chinese version of the manga…. Sorry if I got it wrong…)**

**Shishido: Whatever, just hurry up and do this darn disclaimer so that we all can get back home and change out of these STUPID clothes!! **(Note: They're all wearing casual clothes, the kind their tenimyu actors wore during the 3rd dream live……sigh……Atobe and Choutarou is HOTT!! Jirou and Gakuto are so kawaii…….Hiyoshi and Kabaji…..Erm, looks mature?? Shishido, total skateboarder look!!)

**Choutarou: You don't like them, Shishido-san? I thought they're nice…..**

**Oshitari: They are nice, Choutarou. And I thought I saw you wearing them at least 3 times last week, hm, Shishido?**

**Shishido: That's……..that's……That's because……..erm………my sister………err……forced me to wear them? Oh yeah, that's right!**

**Atobe: Charmane does not own Tennis no Oujisama! Ore-sama bigi na you ni!**

**Shishido: **(Makes a mad dash out of the room)

**Me: **Okayy…… That was the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

"blah" – talking

'blah' – whispering

'_blah'_ – thinking

**Moonlight-Rose19: Yeah, I won't mind reading your fanfic of Kingdom Hearts. Sorry, but I don't have an account at fictionpress. **

* * *

**Chapter Start**

* * *

'_She's scared. Why is she so scared? She's only going to a new school, that's all.'_ Atobe couldn't help but wonder if Sakuno was always this scared. Not to mention Atobe himself didn't even know why he was comforting her, telling her it was going to be alright. Was it because he promised his parents? Or was it because he had complied with Tezuka's requests to keep her safe? Atobe didn't know, but the fact that he would do this for Sakuno actually astounded him. The last time one of his so called girlfriend transferred here, he hadn't bothered to even talk to her at all, he also left her alone to get trampled by his half a thousand fangirls. Never mind the fact that Oshitari was smirking behind him, obviously enjoying this little 'show'.

The tall iron gates of Hyotei slowly creaked open. Atobe could hear shrieks and yells of "Atobe-sama! Ohayou!" from the inside. They were all clearing a path for him to walk through. Sparing a glance down at the trembling figure beside him, Atobe gripped Sakuno's hand, practically pulling her into the school with him.

The shrieks and screams of his fangirls slowly died down to be replaced by a deafening silence. The onlookers couldn't believe what they were seeing. Atobe, holding a girl's hand? Sakuno struggled against Atobe's tight grasp, wishing that he would let go so that she can run and hide from the hundreds of students looking at her. He released her hand momentarily, reaching out to snatch her wrist though. He kept a cool facade, but inside, he was actually feeling a bit abnormal. He wasn't used to this, and he was sure Sakuno wasn't as well. Now the only thing he thought of was to get out of everybody's sight, fast. Sakuno was still writhing, so he tightened his hold on her, pulling her to a secluded part of Hyotei's compound. When he reached there, Atobe released his strong grasp. Sakuno's wrist was slightly redder than before. She was also out of breath. Obviously she wasn't going to be able to keep up with his pace.

"Ore-sama is sorry for having pulled you so roughly."

"Atobe-san, I forgive you for pulling me, but why did you pull me in the first place?"

"If ore-sama had not done that, ore-sama's fangirls would have killed you for walking with me."

"Sou, souka."

"Atobe, we should be going now."

Oshitari was back, a smirk present on his face. He had been observing the whole scene. _'Now I'm starting to get __**really**__ interested in this Ryuuzaki Sakuno. Hm, wh would Atobe even do this for her? Can her parents' company's alliance be this important to him?'_

Sakuno, unaware of Oshitari's thoughts, trailed behind Atobe, heading to the tennis courts that were occupied by the boys' team.

* * *

With the Hyotei Regulars

* * *

"So what do you think of this Ryuuzaki Sakuno?"

The Hyotei tennis team regulars were currently having a heated discussion about Sakuno. Just a few minutes ago, the whole crowd of Atobe's fangirls had stormed past, complaining about a girl, whom the regulars guessed was Sakuno, who dared to seduce their Atobe-sama. A few comments about her, including 'bitch', 'whore', 'slut' and certain others were also overheard.

"I would be asking what the hell did Atobe do to_ her _to make his fans talk so badly about poor Sakuno. I mean, even Sakurano-san used some words, and she's the most sweet-tempered girl I know."

"He grabbed her hand, pulled her after him into the school, brought her to a secluded area of the school, apologized to her for holding her wrist so tightly, then comes back down here, sees and hears you all talking about Sakuno."

"GGGGAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"

"YUUSHI! You're going to give me a heart attack!"

"Oshitari, if you don't stop scaring people like that I'm going to sue you!"

"Oshitari-senpai, why did you do that?!"

"Gekokujyou!"

"Usu."

"Zzzzzz……………."

Yup. That's right. Jirou's asleep. Even after Gakuto's scream. Which is reasonably loud.

"Will all of you stop fooling around?"

Atobe was growling ever so slightly. His teammates seemed like gossip mongrels, especially Gakuto.

"Come on, Sakaki-sensei is probably wondering where the hell we all are."

The regulars bickered the whole time on the way to the tennis courts. Atobe was in front of Kabaji, Sakuno behind him. The regulars brought up the rear. Shishido and Gakuto were still screaming threats at Oshitari for having scared them half to death.

The other tennis club members couldn't help staring at Sakuno. It was the first time a girl was allowed in the boys' tennis courts. It was forbidden, for if there wasn't such a rule, the members would've probably trampled to death by the regulars' past a thousand fangirls.

After greeting Sakaki-sensei and explaining why Sakuno was there, Sakaki-sensei turned towards Sakuno. She promptly tried to hide behind Oshitari.

"Ryuuzaki-chan? It's ok, you don't need to be scared of me. Actually, I thought that you were going to be bored if you just sat here and watch them play. I was going to suggest to you to play tennis for the moment. That will keep you from wasting time here watching them practice."

"Demo, I didn't bring my racket.

"You can use the spare rackets that are kept in the building over there. The building with the fountain in front. Do you want to practice here or go to a more private place?"

"Anou……I don't want to disrupt anybody's practice. I'll just go to the more private place then..."

"You can go behind those bushes there. No one goes there except some people."

"Hai. Arigatou gozaimasu."

Shishido and Gakuto's jaw were practically dropping to the ground. What the hell? Was this really their coach? They had better investigate this. Fast. After all, in all 3 years of training under him, he had never, _never _them that nicely at all. Ever.

Sakuno, unaware of Shishido and Gakuto's reaction to this, ran off to get a racket from the building, eager to escape the attention of the members of the tennis club. Tennis practice resumed as normal. Scratch that, it wasn't normal at all. For one thing, some, if not all of the regulars were only playing half-heartedly. Even so, they still beat the non-regulars by aroung

6-1. Amazing, isn't it? Then again, this is Hyotei we're talking about.

Sakaki-sensei attempted to ignore the way the regulars were playing only half-heartedly, but even he can't avoid the fact that Gakuto had accidentally hit the ball to his way. Lucky his fast reflexes saved him from being hit. Sighing, he gave all the regulars a 10 minute break. Their first move was to drink water. Second was dash to where Sakuno was practicing.

They all hid behind the bushes, save for Atobe and Oshitari, who were smart enough to not get their shirts dirty by hiding behind a wall. Well, the others wanted first row seats actually. That's why they hid in the bushes. Watching Sakuno play, Oshitari noted that she was good, and had great potential in tennis. That wasn't surprising seeing as her grandmother was Coach Ryuuzaki and her father was Ryuuzaki Renji. From what he heard, whoever challenged Ryuuzaki Renji to a match loses by around 6-3 at most. And as for Coach Ryuuzaki, he found some rather interesting information. Like for example, the rumour that she used to coach Samurai Nanjiroh, who was world number 2 around 20 years back, which turned out to be true.

"So all of you are here after all."

"GAAAHHHHH!!"

Sakuno, startled by Gakuto's yell missed the ball, and accidentally tripped on it. She fell down, scraping her knee as she did so. Shishido groaned inwardly. Did Gakuto have to scream whenever somebody sneaked on him? Hopefully Atobe wouldn't set them laps or anything. He's been acting so unlike himself today, probably because of Ryuuzaki. Sheesh. Gakuto could pass as a girl with those screams of his. Wait scratch that, Gakuto _is_ a girl. Hadn't he been calling Gakuto that ever since he knew Gakuto?

Blood was forming on the scratches. The regulars had already moved to where Sakuno was now sitting, excluding Gakuto. He was getting a severe scolding from Sakaki-sensei for making Sakuno fall down. Sakaki-sensei had even set Gakuto 40 laps to run.

"Anou……Minna-san……Mukahi-senpai didn't mean to scare me, and it was also my own fault that I tripped and hurt myself."

"Iie. If Gakuto hadn't screamed, you wouldn't have hurt yourself."

"Demo!"

"No buts, Sakuno. Gakuto deserved it. Atobe's right. So don't argue anymore."

Shishido gaped in surprise. What the hell? Oshitari, _not_ defending Gakuto? In fact, he even agreed to it. Furthermore, Atobe, willingly getting down on his knees, tying somebody else's wound with his clean, spotless handkerchief. Hell, Atobe didn't even care that much when his ex-girlfriend's glass cup got smashed and some of the slivers of glass embedded itself into her arm. Sakuno only gotten a few scratches.

'What the heck? Atobe didn't even care that much to Kaoru-san when her arm was embedded with glass…….'

Apparently Oshitari had the same thought as well.

Oshitari helped move Sakuno near the fountain, where they could clean her wound more easily. Atobe washed his handkerchief, retying it neatly again on Sakuno's wound.

Shisido stared again in this unusual act of care shown by Atobe. Now, his thoughts were occupied by Sakuno and Atobe. Dammit, why can't Atobe act normally? He was affecting almost all of the regulars!

Shishido didn't notice he was still staring at them. He was thinking so deeply that he hadn't notice that Choutarou was calling him. Only when Hiyoshi whacked him on the head did he jolt out of his state. Shishido turned to face the martial artist, growling.

"What?"

Hiyoshi jabbed his thumb towards Choutarou. Following the direction, Shishido gulped before talking.

"Yes?"

"Shishido-san, are you okay? I've been telling you something for the last 5 minutes and you didn't give any reaction at all."

Damn. He shouldn't have stared.

"No, nothings the matter Choutarou."

"If you're sure….."

Choutarou still had a suspicous look in his eye. Damn. He'd have to make it up to him somehow. Hopefully a date or two would be enough. Shishido still owed his elder brother a lot of money. Why does Shishido owe his elder brother so much money you ask? It all stemmed from his parents. At the last Hyotei gathering party, which was in actuality a party for student's parents' to get to know each other and form alliances, Shishido had, in an attempt to make his parents happy danced with a classmate of his. Chiharu, daughter of the CEO of a huge company. He didn't think that Choutarou would mind, after all, he was only doing this to please his parents, boy oh boy, he soon learnt how wrong he was. Choutarou didn't speak to him for a whole week after that. That one whole week was _agony. _AGONY, with all the letters spelled in capital form. Oshitari had tried to help, as he intended to lessen his headache. Why does he have a headache? Because of Shishido rambling about how unfair life is and asking how his Choutarou could become such a jealous person. Oops. Rambling. Sorry. So anyway, Oshitari tried to help, but his help was futile. After that week, Choutarou started talking to him, but it was only those polite conversations. Shishido couldn't stand it. He picked the option to bring Choutarou out on a date where Choutarou could do whatever he wanted, which was actually, a great idea. Until he remembered he was broke that is. His parents were late in giving him his allowance, again. But since Shishido couldn't stand Choutarou communicating with him like this for another day, he chose something he would've never ever done in his whole life. More specifically something he would avoid doing if at all possible. He borrowed money from his elder brother, Riku. 50000 yen to be exact. The good side was that Choutarou was really happy after their date and after that they had - oops. Private and confidential things happened between them. That's all I'm saying. OK, down side was that he had to pay back all those cash. With a 3 percent tax every month. Life was cruel. Lady Luck hated him. Cupid on the other hand wanted to watch him suffer.

Gakuto had finally finished running his laps. Panting and hufing a bit, he bowed down, apologizing to Sakuno.

"Gomen nasai, Ryuuzaki-chan."

"Iie, that was nothing Mukahi-senpai. You didn't mean to do that on purpose. And anyway, I wasn't so badly hurt."

"Souka? That's good then."

Shishido had observed this little exchange. But what shocked him was Atobe. Atobe was sitting down, but there was a strange look on his face. It as as if though Atobe was glaring at Gakuto. Atobe? Glare? These two words had never been in the same sentence before. But it sure was now. Oh kami-sama. Who _is _Ryuuzaki Sakuno? But more importantly, why the hell is _Atobe_ _glaring _at Gakuto?

'_Why is Atobe-buchou glaring at Gakuto-senpai?'_

Now Choutarou was really worried. He knew the reason Shishido-san had been staring at Atobe-buchou and Sakuno. He was also a bit shocked as well at the unusual display of care Atobe-buchou gave. Atobe-buchou……..What the hell posessed him to make him act like _that_?

Oshitari smirked. He had seen Atobe glare at Gakuto. Oh if his assumptions were correct, the rest of the year is definitely going to be an interesting year……….

* * *

Chapter End

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry, but exams are coming up. I won't be able to update the next chapter that quickly. Next chapter, Atobe is going to show Sakuno around. Of course, the Hyotei regulars, being such nosey parkers are definitely going to tag along. LOLX. I wonder what'll happen. I myself have absolutely no idea. So if you guys have any ideas, then tell me in a review or PM me. I'd appreciate it. Before I forget, I found a PoT game. It's the yakinku competition. Here's the link:

http:(slashslash)www(dot)y8(dot)com(slash)games(slash)The(underscore)Prince(underscore)of(underscore)Yakinku


	4. In which Oshitari is caught with Gakuto

**A/N: Exams are over!! Now I can concentrate on this fic more! WHOO! Chapter 4 now! I'm so happy!! Thank you for all the reviews you guys gave me!! I appreciate it, but I'm too damn lazy to reply to them. Sorry for the delay!! Oh yeah, a happy belated birthday to Oshitari Yuushi and Yagyuu Hiroshi.**

**TheTensaiMaRuiBunTa: Dunno if you're reading this or not, but I'm so happy!! Thank you for making that AMV 'cuz of my fanfic, "We Were Just a Little Too Late" !! It's beautiful!! Anybody who's interested in watching it, go to her profile and click on the link EijiSaku.  
**

**Warnings: Dirty pair fluff. Mentioned Perfect Pair. Those who don't like yaoi, skip it. OOC regulars as well. More specifically Atobe.**

**Disclaimer: See 1****st**** chapter.**

"**blah" – talking**

'**blah' – whispering**

'_**blah' –**_** thinking**

* * *

**Chapter start**

* * *

Sakaki-sensei decided that Sakuno should stop playing, and despite her protests, ordered Choutarou to carry her to the tennis courts. After a short argument, which not surprisingly ended in Sakuno losing, Sakuno was carried piggyback style to the tennis courts. The tennis club members all stopped what it was they were doing. I mean, who wouldn't be shocked at the sight? Ohtori Choutarou, the sweetest, kindest member of the Hyotei tennis regulars was carrying a girl, namely Sakuno piggyback style. He was walking behind Atobe, listening to the regulars chattering (arguing) behind him. However, they were soft enough to not let Atobe hear what it is they were talking about. Sakuno on the other hand, was able to hear their entire conversation clearly.

"So what d'ya think?"

"Think about what?"

"DUH! Atobe-buchou, he's been acting SO out of character since this morning!"

"Keep your voices down you two! If Atobe hears this, we can all forget about being able to live through the next hour!!"

"Sheesh. You're such a worry wart Yuushi."

"Yeah."

"I am _**not**_, I like my head where it is right now and I don't want to lose my position as a regular here."

"Drama queen."

The glare Oshitari shot Gakuto was enough to shut him up for the rest of the way. Choutarou gently got Sakuno off his back. Sakaki-sensei sat next to Sakuno for the rest of practice, conversing with her and asking questions about why she was transferring to Hyotei, the girls' tennis team in Seigaku. So far, he has avoided mentioning the boys' tennis team. Sakuno was grateful for that.

The regulars on the other hand, even though practicing hard, they were still talking non-stop with each other. Atobe was annoyed, no, seething with anger. He likes his teammates, sure he does. But he _cannot _stand their love/need for gossip and chatter every single minute of the day. Actually, there were only three talkative ones. Luckily the third was most of the time, asleep. Yeah, Jirou is talkative whenever he's awake. Obviously the other two are Shishido and Gakuto. It's total pandemonium if the three of them start arguing. It wouldn't matter if the three weren't so loud, but they were. Their arguments could be heard within a 10 metre radius. He was having a hard time concentrating on the game, which actually surprised him. '_But then again, who would be able to concentrate when a couple of gossips nearby are talking about you and your love life?'_ Atobe smirked to himself. He was going to set them laps for this later. Hiyoshi, seeing his captain was distracted, snatched the opportunity to get a point and win the set. Atobe snapped back to the game, barely able to return Hiyoshi's shot. Their next rally lasted for a full 10 minutes with Hiyoshi finally winning his first set throughout the whole game. It didn't do much to change the outcome though; Atobe won 6-1.

Gakuto had wanted to ask if Atobe liked Sakuno, straight out, but when Shishido heard him, he whacked Gakuto's with a tennis ball. Shishido hissed.

"Baka, are you freaking insane or what? If anybody else hears that, which is a high probability, seeing as your loudmouth _always_ spills secrets unintentionally, you'll get poor Sakuno in trouble."

"Really? How? Why?"

Shishido smacked his forehead. How the hell could his friend be such an idiot?

"Cherry head no baka, you _know_ that this school passes rumours quickly!! If _anybody_ finds out Atobe likes Sakuno, Sakuno will be dead the moment she's out of our sight!! Who knows _what_ those fan girls of his will do to her?"

"Erm…..bind her tightly in rope and throw her into the ocean?"

Oshitari joined Shishido in smacking his forehead this time. However unlikely Oshitari seems by doing it, he couldn't help it; his doubles partner was sometimes even dumber than that Donald Duck like person from St. Rudolph.

"OK, fine, I won't argue about that with you. But get this, they'll probably do that to her. And imagine what will happen to us when that happens."

Oshitari nodded his head at this.

"So far, Atobe has been acting rather protectively of her. He sees her, in my opinion, more of a little sister than anything else. So it wouldn't be a wise idea, once you take a look at the highly possible negative consequences. If you want to try it, do it yourself. I have no want of putting myself in a noose."

The talking trio, and Choutarou who was listening as usual, failed to notice their 'beloved' buchou strutting towards them like a peacock. As he was just about to open his mouth and set them laps, he was interrupted.

Sakaki-sensei dismissed the students. Atobe wasn't really happy, unable to give his teammates their deserved laps. Oh well. There was always Monday.

Atobe wasn't ecstatic in letting the regulars join him in showing Sakuno the school. After all, he has experienced firsthand what sort of ideas they can implant into a student's brain. He known for a fact that some of the students who hung around with Gakuto (who hadn't liked them all that much) last time transferred out of the school in a hurry. Some even migrated to the other end of the world. Okay, the migration part wasn't exactly true. It was just a rumour. But Atobe was willing to bet half his fortune that it is, or _will_ be real, someday.

Atobe first brought Sakuno to the school library. It was at least three times the size of Seigaku's, and it was filled with rare, expensive books that would be hard to find, even if you went to rare books museums (if there's actually such a place. I heard my sister talk about it, so I decided to put this down). Hiyoshi, who liked reading books, informed Sakuno of the best books in the library; whilst Oshitari sauntered off to look for a romance novel with Gakuto in tow. Shisido on the other hand dragged Choutarou to the reference books section. Shishido seriously needed help on geometry. But he didn't want to look like he was going there willingly, thus dragging Choutarou along.

Sakuno listened to Hiyoshi's description of the library and the books they had; all the while wondering why Atobe was so silent. From what she had seen and heard, Atobe wasn't exactly like the sort of guy to actually keep silent for most of the time. Sakuno shrugged it off, continuing to listen to Hiyoshi's chatter. _'What other people do is no concern of mine if they do not wish to tell me.'_ She had learnt that from Himura-senpai in the tennis club. Himura Takiko was the brisk, no nonsense 2nd year regular. Sakuno couldn't help smiling when she thought of what Himura-senpai had done to fukubuchou when she had joined in one of Haruka-senpai's pranks.

"So, that's all really. What type of books do you prefer? I can possibly recommend some books found here."

"Iie. Arigatou, Hiyoshi-senpai. I think I'll just look around myself then."

"Hn. Well, we can stay here for an hour. Afterwards I'll show you the school buildings."

"Hai."

Hiyoshi and Sakuno wandered off. Sakuno to look for English reference books and Hiyoshi to find out what new books there are. Kabaji left to find books concerning his worse subject, modern literature.

Atobe on the other hand, sat down at a nearby table, picking out a favourite thriller; Goosebumps. Strange why Hyotei lets these sort of books in the library, ne? Then again, Hyotei can bend a lot of rules that apply for normal schools.

Sakuno sighed to herself in frustration. Why couldn't she grow any taller? It's always very bothersome to have to ask people to get it for her; some would just laugh at her and walk away; others were kind enough to get it for her; some on the other hand, would take it for her, providing she did something for them in return.

"Sakuno-chan, is there something you need?"

Sakuno looked up, relieved to find Choutarou and Shishido standing next to her. Now she didn't need to ask for someone else's help.

"Hai. Can you get that book for me, onegai? That one, second from the right on the eighth shelf from the top."

Shishido glanced at the cover. "Oh. English also a killer for you, huh?"

"Hai."

"You won't need to worry much. You can always ask Atobe. His English is good."

"Souka."

"Join us?"

Nodding her head, Sakuno followed them. Shishido sank down in the plush seats. Choutarou sat down next to Sakuno. While Shishido and Sakuno were studying for English, Choutarou went through several music sheets, wishing he could just pick one for the piano exam coming up.

* * *

_** With Oshitari and Gakuto**_

* * *

"Gakuto, remind me why I'm letting you drag me all around the place when all I actually _want_ to do is read that new romance novel, and _why_ I'm speaking to you?"

"Yuushi, sshhhh……"

Gakuto, still holding onto Oshitari's hand pulled Oshitari around the school, looking for an empty room. Peering into one of the lesser-used music rooms, he nodded approvingly.

"Ah, this is deserted. Quick, quick. Get in."

Questions wanting to make themselves heard were spinning in Oshitari's mind, but he kept silent. For Gakuto to be so focused was rare. Whatever it was, it had to be important.

Shutting the door softly behind him, Oshitari strode towards the piano, leaning on it casually. Gakuto was extremely nervous. He was fiddling with his shirt using his right hand; his left fingering something in his pocket, and he wasn't even looking at Oshitari. Oshitari had to admit though, Gakuto did look cute doing that.

"Gakuto."

Gakuto looked up. The surprise on his face was evident. He hadn't expected Oshitari to call him.

"Yes?"

"Why did you drag me here?"

Gakuto turned red. He looked away, still fiddling with the thing in his pocket. Oshitari was sure he knew what it was. Yes, he went through Gakuto's backpack every time before practice secretly, and even read Gakuto's diary once when he accidentally brought it to school. So? It was interesting, especially that bit where he found out of Gakuto's greatest 'secret'. What? He could look through his doubles partner's backpack and diary if he wanted to! He was allowed to, for kami's sake!

"Err……Yuushi……."

Oshitari wanted to smirk. He wanted to laugh even. Gakuto, stuttering? Oshitari never thought that he'd see the day. But then again who wouldn't stutter at a situation like this? Wait, Atobe was one of them.

"Well? I'm not going to stand and wait here all day."

"Yuushi………..I……….I……….."

Oshitari was already starting to laugh, hard. In his mind of course. If he laughed out loud, Gakuto would know that he knew, and Gakuto would never ever forgive him for that. Oshitari bit down on his lip. This was too funny. And Gakuto looked so kawaii……..

"Yuushi, daisuki!"

Gakuto had yelled out the last part, then squeezed his eyes shut. He did it……..any minute now, Oshitari was going to reject him…….definitely…….. But at least he told him…….Mukahi Gakuto can handle any pain directed at him, even if it was being rejected by his secret love…….

Oshitari couldn't help it. He contented himself with giving the quietest chuckle ever, before striding to Gakuto's side. Leaning down, he whispered into Gakuto's ear.

"I already knew you liked me, Gakkun no baka."

Gakuto turned a violent shade of red at the proximity. It wasn't until around 10 seconds later did Oshitari's words sink in.

"WHAT?!"

Gakuto was staring at Oshitari as if though it was the first time he had really looked at him. His mind was going through a thousand possibilities, each more unlikely than the last.

"I read it."

Gakuto's jaw dropped.

"Huh?"

"Your diary. You brought it to school one day. You know I always go through your bag, right? I read it. But I honestly didn't think you'd be the kind to keep a diary."

"Why did you-"

The rest of Gakuto's sentence was unheard as Oshitari swooped down, placing a soft kiss on his lips.

* * *

_** One hour later**_

* * *

Atobe Keigo, exceptional diva of Hyotei, was pissed. No, make that _extremely_ pissed. The regulars and Sakuno were smart enough to keep away from him for a 10 feet radius. Reason Atobe was pissed? Well, he specified that they were going to go tour Sakuno around the school after staying in the library for an hour. Problem: Oshitari and Gakuto still weren't back from the music room.

After another 15 minutes of waiting for them, Atobe concluded that they, meaning Sakuno and everyone except for the missing pair, would go and leave them wherever it is they were. Next, they went to various places like the school's basketball courts, badminton courts.

Sakuno was more than just a little awed at everything. Seigaku was clean, yes, but Hyotei was just, plain _spotless_. _Sparkling with cleanliness_, even. So far, Sakuno couldn't see anything out of place or the leas bit stained at all. It was starting to scare her. The facilities were also all in top condition, but that was expected. Hyotei _is_ one of the most prestigious schools in the whole of Japan after all.

Sakuno fervently prayed to kami that she would be able to remember the way to her new classroom. She hoped that she wouldn't have to ask for directions, and be able to sink into somebody almost non-existent here in Hyotei, like she did in Seigaku.

"And this corridor are all music rooms. There's a piano, mike, music stand and some scores for those who only play for fun. Come on, this one's empty. You can see what's it's like."

Choutarou opened the door wide.

And right in front of them, backs facing them were the two missing players, kissing each other so fiercely passionately. They stopped their actions when they heard the door close. Gakuto blushed, looking away from them. His hair was tousled, his cheeks flushed. His clothes were also wrinkled. Oshitari, on the other hand was just a bit scuffled.

"Gomen. But then again, it's rude to go into a room without knocking, you know."

Atobe was about to give his second best doubles pair a long lecture about doing these things in public, when he was interrupted by a soft giggle. Turning, he saw Sakuno stifling her giggles with her hand. Everyone stared at her incredulously. Noticing everybody's stares, she hastily stopped it.

"Summimasen. Demo, this seemed so much like last time."

"Last time?"

"Hai. One time I walked in on Fuji-nii and Mi- Tezuka-senpai kissing."

Gakuto gaped.

"Fuji…… and Tezuka?"

"Hai. But don't tell anyone, please! Tezuka-senpai won't be able to have a moment of peace if anybody finds out…….."

Sakuno looked ready to cry. In truth, it was just crocodile tears. She learnt the trick from Tomoka, who used it countless of times to try and get out of babysitting her younger brothers.

As expected, it worked.

"Sakuno-chan!! Don't cry, please don't! Of course we won't tell anybody about this, we swear, right? Right?"

Nodding fervently, the rest of them agreed. Sakuno stopped pretending to cry, smiling again.

"Well, since this is all that there is to see here at Hyotei, and there's really nothing else to do, not to mention it's almost lunchtime, can we leave?"

Agreeing with Shishido, the Hyotei regulars managed to walk out of the gates before Gakuto had one of his 'brilliant' ideas.

"Say, why don't we go to Sakuno-chan's place? I mean, I always wanted to see how the owners of Ryuuzaki Corps live, that is, if Sakuno-chan doesn't mind of course……"

Sakuno shook her head.

"Iie."

"Good then let's go!"

Poor Atobe couldn't even get a word in. Sigh. The Ice King, for the first time ever unable to voice out his own opinions. However unlikely that may seem, it was true.

The whole way back, Gakuto couldn't shut his mouth at all. He kept up a long argument with Shishido on what Ryuuzaki Renji and Ringo styles would be like. When they reached the front gate, they shut up instantly. The majestic entrance had already left them gob smacked.

Atobe ignored them, stepping up and typed in the password. Iron gates swinging open, they had the full view of the entrance. Western decorations mixed with Japanese, it was an unusual combination, but definitely nice.

Gakuto, who was interested in birds dragged Oshitari to the aviary. Everyone else followed. Sakuno pointed out some of her father's prize birds to Gakuto. Listening politely to Sakuno, Shishido couldn't help but be fascinated by the rest of the house. _'How strange. I didn't know they would have a style like this. Otousan and Okaasan always wanted to meet them. I wonder if they'll pretend to like them, like how they do most of the time.'_

Shishido stooped down, noticing a bird that seemed to be beckoning to him. Poking a finger through the net, the bird nipped his finger. It didn't hurt at all, Shishido actually kind of liked it.

Stroking the bird's head with one finger, Shishido stood up, giving a small smile.

"Do you like the bird, Shishido-senpai?"

Sakuno was the one who asked. Choutarou was also grinning slightly. _'Why the hell is Choutarou grinning? Oh please, don't tell me it's __**that**__ unusual to find me smiling without rhyme or reason.'_

"Shishido-san, I didn't know you liked birds that much."

There was a slight tremor in Choutarou's voice. _'WHAT?! He's laughing at me!! It can't be that unusual that I liked birds a lot, can it? I mean, a lot of people like them, for hell's sake!'_

"Shishido-senpai? You still haven't answered my question."

Shishido turned. Hopefully his face isn't bright red at the moment. He'll ask Choutarou what was so funny later.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason. It's just that Otousan doesn't have much space left, and he wants to add another bird to his collection. He's thinking of giving away a few birds, and if you want it, you can have it."

"Oh. Okay. I'll think about it."

All of them trooped into the back door, where the chef, Monsieur Gusto was busily preparing lunch. He greeted them without even looking up from the pot.

"Bon après-midi, Keigo-sama, Sakuno-sama. Oh, are they your friends?"

"Hai."

"Ah, I shall prepare extra then. Oh yes, Ringo-sama called to say that she, Renji-sama, Kaname-sama and Tsukino-sama will be in for lunch around 2.00pm. I suggest you all tidy yourselves a bit. They said they were bringing along friends."

Atobe lead the way up to his room. They obviously couldn't appear at the dining table wearing their tennis clothes now. Luckily there were always spare clothes for the regulars on occasions like this. Sakuno stepped into her room, closing the door behind her. Atobe ushered the regulars into his room, where they all argued over who got the shower first. After listening to Atobe's 87th lecture for the year, they all let Choutarou shower first.

Donning on his favourite white shirt, and pulling on leather pants, Atobe made sure his friends looked presentable. Hopefully the guests were people he knew, then they wouldn't mind so much of his friends looks. Oshitari helped Gakuto wear his shirt properly, with a few threats. Choutarou managed to convince Shishido to take off his cap and leave it in Atobe's room. Just as they stepped out of the room, so did Sakuno.

Sakuno was wearing a rather simple blue dress with pink lace on the ends. Sakuno had tied her hair up in ponytails instead of her usual braids. She looked decidedly pretty, Oshitari noted. They then walked down the stairs, to eat lunch and meet the Ryuuzaki's.

* * *

_** Chapter End**_

* * *

**A/N: I honestly think this was the best place to end it. The next update will come sooner, hopefully as my exams are over and the post-exam activities (which take up a lot of school time) are fast approaching. Hopefully my class will win the games. Don't forget to review, mind!**


	5. Chapter V

**A/N: Hello again! Forgive me for the delay, but I was busy with my school's post-exam activities. More and more people are reading this, and I'm glad you guys like it! Without further ado, here is the 5****th**** chapter!**

**Disclaimer: See 1****st**** chapter.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter start

* * *

**

They sat down at the table, leaving the few seats near the head of the table empty for Sakuno and Atobe's parents' guests. Monsieur Gusto had prepared shark fin soup, lamb chop and ujikintoki kakigori (Green tea flavored Japanese shaved ice, for those of you who don't know. I think it should be nice, I found the recipe online.) Atobe and the rest waited patiently and quietly for the elders. When Atobe and Sakuno's parents came in, all stood up, greeting them. The guests, introducing themselves as Kashim-san and Nahoko-san had brought their daughter and son with them, namely Maya and Tamahome.

Lunch passed by with polite conversations, and silent jabbing from Gakuto to Oshitari, that Oshitari ignores for most of the time, at least. On the rare occasion he did respond, it was always a swift kick or pinch. When lunch was finished, the adults left to discuss business, leaving Sakuno and the rest to interact among themselves. Maya had already been shooting Hiyoshi suggestive looks, while Tamahome had simply stared at Atobe and Oshitari. He didn't know why Atobe had shot him glares, and why Oshitari had smirked whenever he noticed Atobe glare at him.

Tamahome gave a silent sigh. What was it with these people? He knew, he had stared a bit too long at the only girl present among them; yes, she was pretty, and yes, he couldn't help blushing slightly when Sakuno talked to him. He already knew it was going to be a pretty long day when his parents told him they were going to a friends' place. Sakuno had retreated to the kitchen, kami knows why. Did she want to get something? She could've told the maid that though. So what?

Tamahome joined his sister, listening to her futile attempts to make Hiyoshi talk. The group made their way to the vast, empty, unspoiled space at the back of the house. A lake was situated there, several trees grew around there as well. The back of the house was actually the top of a hill. Ryuuzaki Renji had arranged for a couple of tennis courts to be built there, as well as several stone benches and tables.

Maya was still trying fruitlessly to get Hiyoshi to respond. Hiyoshi clamped his mouth shut, fervently blocking out any incessant chatter in case he loses his temper and snaps at Maya. Shishido, noticing this promptly began to wonder about how many things he could get Hiyoshi to do if he recorded the whole happenings and used it as blackmail. Damn, he was really becoming like Seigaku's tensai. He should stop watching all those videos that Jirou bought from Inui of Fuji's doings in school. Jirou forced him to. Don't ask. Jirou even bought videos concerning Marui Bunta's daily doings from Yanagi Renji. Shishido is confident he can remember excatly what Marui and Fuji had been doing for the past week during their tennis practice. The number of times he watched and re-watched the videos with Jirou must be beyond what an average human could count………. Fuji and Marui's habits were already starting to imprint in his head…..

"Would you like to play a tennis match? Kashim-san mentioned you played for your old school in America."

Tamahome gladly accepted Oshitari's request, eager to stop watching his sister. He was getting more and more annoyed of her by the second. Borrowing one of Oshitari's rackets, Tamahome smirked inwardly. There was no way he's going to let anybody beat him so easily in tennis. So far, Tamahome had beat all of the people who challenged him to a tennis match easily, with a 6-3 average. There was no way Oshitari was going to win against him.

Atobe sat down at the plastic chair, silently watching Tamahome and Oshitari's rally. Really, what the hell was Oshitari thinking? He should stop wasting time and gain that point already. Tamahome was getting more and more frustrated . He hadn't expected Oshitari to return his first shot; it was one of his special ones. Watching Oshitari return all of his shots so easily was only aggravating him.

"F&S."

'_Hn. Only now he starts playing seriously against this Tamahome.'_

"Game! Oshitari. 2 games all."

Tamahome bristled. Oshitari had won two games already. He rarely played with anyone this good. Still, he was going to crush Oshitari. He had one last trick up his sleeve.

Executing a twist serve, Tamahome waited for Oshitari to return it. Oshitari lobbed the ball high. Tamahome dashed forward, smashing it strongly. Oshitari used Higuma Otoshi. Tamahome didn't even have time to react. The shock was imprinted clearly on his facial expression. Even Maya stopped talking and stared in surprise. Atobe was so used to seeing Oshitari use this that he gave a soft silent snort. Shishido scoffed, while Hiyoshi looked extremely thankful that Maya had stopped talking. It came as no surprise to them when Oshitari won, 6 games to 3.

Tamahome seethed with anger. He had never lost to anyone before; especially not to anyone who went to some rich school where all the students were snobs. Their match had lasted for two whole hours. When they finally finished, it was already around 4.30pm. The sun was shining so brightly down on them, they all retreated to the lake. The large gingko tree provided quite a nice place to duck from the sun. Atobe sat down, joined by the rest of the Hyotei regulars. Jirou promptly fell asleep on Atobe's lap. Atobe never minded Jirou sleeping on him; he had gotten so used to it that he didn't even bother to complain that his shirt was going to get wrinkled. Gakuto spoke first.

"Man, this place is steaming! Why not take a dip in the lake? It'll definitely be cool!"

"Anything to shut you up." Shishido lay down next to Choutarou, fully prepared for Gakuto's outburst.

"WHAT?! URUSAI, SHISHI NO BAKA!"

The hourly quarrel that _must_ be held whenever Shishido and Gakuto were together was already treated as some sort of annoyingly loud background music or mosquito buzzing around by the Hyotei regulars. Thus, they were barely fazed by the commotion, and Jirou didn't move in the slightest, even when they were already arguing/cat fighting over trivial matters. Oshitari ignored them, politely asking Hiyoshi if he wished to join him for a swim. Glad at an opportunity to stop watching his senpais childish quarreling, Hiyoshi readily accepted the invitation. After changing into spare swimwear with Atobe, Jirou, Choutarou and Tamahome, they returned to see the bickering duo _still_ fighting. Maya sat down, covering her ears in a sad attempt to block out Shishido and Gakuto's deafening argument. Atobe dived into the lake gracefully. Oshitari followed suit. Choutarou hopped lightly into the lake, Jirou just sat at the bank, his shirt still on him, gleefully splashing anyone that was within range. Tamahome raced with Hiyoshi, both parties swimming furiously and maniacally up and down the lake.

The sun was already starting to set, it's fiery-red glare dying the sky and lake a pale orange-yellow shade. The birds flew off, past the horizon. A light breeze picked up, whispering in their ears and caressing them. The trees waved happily. Choutarou wished he had a camera with him right now; it was definitely his mental image on world peace. Nonetheless, Shishido and Gakuto were still arguing.

Smirking, Oshitari thought of a way to shut Shishido and Gakuto up. Quickly filling a bucket (?) of water, Oshitari dumped the not-so-warm-but-would-be-absolutely-freezing-in-this-hot-weather water onto Gakuto and Shishido. The response was immediate.

"YUUSHI! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"OSHITARI! YOU'LL _PAY_ FOR THIS!!"

"Hn."

Hiyoshi barely suppressed a snicker at the sight of his two loudmouthed senpais screaming threats, insults and…….Well, it wasn't pretty. Oshitari raised an eyebrow, his sadistic gaze effectively stopping the duo from saying anything else. A clear voice cut through the air, the barely suppressed amused tone making Shishido growl slightly.

"I didn't know young people these days have such an _extensive_ vocabulary……"

Ryuuzaki Renji was standing, chuckling and watching Shishido alongside Gakuto drenched.

"Shishido-kun, Gakuto-kun, I suggest you two change out of your wet attire. I'm sure you don't want to get a cold. All of you, take a bath or shower. Don't bother about changing into formal attire. We're just having a barbecue."

Everyone followed behind Renji. Choutarou and Oshitari separated their doubles partner from the other. Oshitari dragged Gakuto to the end and proceeded to give a lecture on not to use certain words whenever at somebody else's house.

Maya joined Sakuno at the back entrance. Sakuno was pulled off by Maya, and both went into her room, with Maya telling Sakuno all that had happened when she wasn't there. When Maya asked what Sakuno was doing the whole time. Atobe, behind the two girls, listened quietly to their conversation.

They separated when they reached their respective rooms. Closing the door behind her, Maya and Sakuno took a bath together. Sakuno listened to Maya's chatter all the while, until Maya asked her.

"Ne, Sakuno-chan, if you could choose between all of those Hyotei regulars, which one would you choose as a brother?"

Sakuno hadn't expected that.

"Eh?"

"Come on, you heard me. Who?"

"Eto……Hiyoshi-senpai, I guess."

"Hiyoshi-kun? I thought of Shishido-kun. Then…...Best actor among them?"

"Atobe-senpai."

"Hm, I thought of the same thing. Imagine Kabaji being an actor."

"Anou, Kabaji-senpai is actually quite a good actor. He can act out quite perfectly anything that he sees once."

"Really?" Maya mused over this. "I never thought he would have that sort of ability. Most girlish among them?"

Sakuno mulled over the question for a few minutes.

"This is hard……Gakuto-senpai or Jirou-senpai, perhaps?"

"Yeah, this _is_ hard. I just wanted to ask."

"Maya-san?"

"Hm?"

"Forgive me if this seems rude, but I don't think you're very close to your parents. Demo doishite? You always go everywhere with them, right?"

"Just because I go everywhere with them doesn't mean we're any closer, Sakuno-chan."

"What does that mean?"

Maya gave a soft hum. Standing up and re wrapping the towel elegantly around her, Maya gave a soft smile to Sakuno.

"You'll understand when you're older."

With those words, Maya exited the bathroom, leaving Sakuno to ponder on what Maya had meant.

*******In Atobe's Room*******

The usual fight on who gets to use the bathroom first is no longer unnerving. Jirou just curled up in one of Atobe's armchairs again; telling Shishido to wake him up when it was his turn to bathe. Atobe sat on another one of his armchairs, not really caring about who gets to bathe first. After all, he was the host, and the host always gets everything last, or very early on.

Kabaji stands at a corner with Hiyoshi, talking from time to time. (And by talking, I mean_ talking_. Real, actual talking. Not just plain "Usu".) After some smart-talking, Oshitari got to use the bathroom first. Gakuto only fumed, and pushed Oshitari into the bathroom, flaming red, when Oshitari asked with a smirk if Gakuto wanted to shower with him.

Atobe switched on his laptop, deleting all of his fan-mail without even glancing through them. Reading Ayumi Haruka's email about the update on when the other school events were going to be held, Atobe caught a few snatches of his teammates conversations. He sat up straighter ever so slightly when he heard Shishido and Gakuto's conversation.

"…….Moron……Doesn't know what the hell he's doing…….."

"Yeah……Kill……Atobe……Sakuno……Without a doubt……."

"Mmhmm…….Oshitari……happy……smirking……whole time……"

Why did they mention him and Oshitari? Oshitari was smirking? The whole time? Really? Atobe pondered over what this meant. Did Oshitari think he liked Sakuno, which was why he had glared continuously at Tamahome? Atobe could barely contain his snort. Sakuno, to him was a little sister more than anything else. Hn. That, and he didn't like the way Tamahome was looking at Sakuno. The look was appalling; so disgusting he just wanted to shove Tamahome into a pit of boiling tar. Atobe never had a sibling before, but since he was going to be living with Sakuno for the next two months or so, he really _was_ going to be like an elder brother to Sakuno. Atobe honestly couldn't wait for Monday to come. He was going to set Shishido, Gakuto and Oshitari more laps than normal.

"Atobe? What are you smirking at?"

Damn. Atobe really wanted to smack Tamahome now. He had just started plotting what to do to the gossiping duo when they returned to school on Monday. Now he couldn't, for the life of him remember what was it he wanted to make them do. Contenting himself with giving a strange cross between a smirk and a glare, Atobe answered.

"Ore-sama has merely thought of something amusing."

"Oh? Care to share it?"

Thinking fast, Atobe bit out a reply.

"You do not know the people in the joke, so you will not understand it."

Tamahome gave a low sigh, fervently wishing that Oshitari would hurry up and finish showering so he could get his turn.

*******BBQ PARTY!!!*******

The adults definitely noticed the strange tension between the teens. Kashim-san wrote it off as teens being 'teens'. Renji and Kaname didn't bother much about it. The three women, on the other hand giggling softly among themselves imagined the sort of drama that had occurred and will occur.

All in all, the barbecue cook out was pretty relaxing, in it's own way. Gakuto, Shishido and Tamahome started bickering on something totally stupid; Oshitari and Atobe were engaged in their own conversation; Jirou was snoozing as usual; Kabaji was still dining with Hiyoshi; Maya and Sakuno on the other hand started their own game of chess.

The three women talked softly among themselves. The topic of conversation gradually changed from jewelry and clothes to their children.

Ringo smirked.

"Have you two ever played this game, in which the players must say out the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to them, their family members or their friends?"

Tsukino smiled. She liked where this was heading.

"No, have you, Naho-chan?"

"No, but just from the sounds of it, I already think I'll like it."

"The rules are simple. Everybody has to say the most embarrassing things they can think of. There are a total of five chances. The one who says the least embarrassing thing will be punished."

"Punished?"

Ringo smiled, continuing.

"The punishment will be decided by the other two players. But nothing sexual of course. So, let's start, shall we? I'll go first."

"I accidentally spilled a can of the drink I was advertising for on a customer when I was working part-time as a salesgirl."

"You really did that?"

"Yup. My wage was cut off cause of that single incident."

"Well," Nahoko smiled at the memory of this. "My brother was trying to get the school flag down one day, nobody knows how he did it, but he managed to pull down his girlfriend's skirt."

Peals of laughter followed this.

"How did he manage _that_?"

"Nobody knows……."

After the voting was concluded, Tsukino was the one who had to be punished. Grinning happily, she asked what was her punishment. Ringo pondered on the question for a minute, when an idea popped into her head.

"Tsukino, as punishment, you'll have to bring Tama-kun here and ask him whether he 'likes' Sakuno or not."

"WHAT?!"

Everyone turned to stare at Tsukino. Her loud outburst certainly wasn't expected. Blushing slightly, Tsukino sat down. Everyone resumed their activities.

"Are you two _serious_ about this?"

"Mhmm, perfectly serious."

Tsukino turned to Nahoko with pleading eyes.

"Nahoko, Tama-kun's your son. You wouldn't want to embarrass him, would you?"

"I do, actually. That's one of the fun parts of being a parent, now go."

Sighing at the note of utter finality in her voice, Tsukino called Tamahome over. Abandoning the two Hyotei regulars who were arguing about whether one should use more speed or gear when playing this racing game that they both like, Tamahome obediently went over to them.

"What was it you wanted me for, Tsukino-san?"

"Er……Tama-kun……Do you like Sakuno-chan or not?"

"Eh?"

Tamahome was dumbfounded. Did Tsukino-san just ask what he thought she asked?

"Well, Tamahome?"

His mother was trying hard to suppress a smile when she asked this. Ringo-san had already covered her mouth with her hand. Little giggles escaped once in a while. Tsukino-san, on the other hand was looking slightly embarrassed. Furiously wishing he will not have to go through something like this again, Tamahome gave a very soft answer.

"Yes."

Ringo and Nahoko started laughing. They couldn't help themselves. Others dismissed it as one of the strange jokes that they enjoyed. Nobody noticed that Tamahome was blushing madly, other than his Nahoko, Ringo and Tsukino of course.

"O-okaasan!"

This was said in a fierce whisper. Nonetheless, Nahoko wasn't in the least bit intimidated by it. Her son's glare was every bit like her husband's, whose glare she had been immune to since the moment she met him.

"Maa maa, Tama-kun. But I really didn't expect you to tell us so straightforwardly, ne, Rin-chan?"

"Hai."

"Demo!"

"Never mind, Tama-kun. It was just a form of entertainment for us. Now continue with whatever it is you were doing, okay?"

Then poor Tamahome, having (unwittingly) confessed to his mother and Tsukino-san _and _Ringo-san, Sakuno's mother, trudged off unhappily. He was in that moody mood for the rest of the night, and didn't even pretend to be happy when he thanked them for the hospitality. Needless to say, Hiyoshi was extremely relieved when Maya finally left. Kaname arranged for the Hyotei regulars to be sent home by a limousine. After bidding her parents goodnight, Sakuno returned to her room. She met Atobe at the stairs. Sakuno thought silently for a moment, with her head looking down.

"Sakuno?"

Sakuno looked up. Atobe was standing next to her, staring questioningly at her. Flushing with embarrassment, Sakuno tried to form a sentence, but as usual, it got lost when she opened her mouth. Sakuno always hated this.

"Well?"

"Anou, Atobe-san, can I call you Keigo-nii?"

Atobe cocked his head slightly. Nobody ever asked him a question like that before. Then again, he had never met anyone quite like Sakuno. His first impulse was to refuse, but when he opened his mouth, the words that came tumbling out was:

"Call me whatever you want."

"Arigatou, Keigo-nii!"

Atobe wondered what on earth came over him when he heard Sakuno's happy reply and the closing of her door later.

Switching on her computer, Sakuno hummed her favourite song, "Yume no Tsubasa" while waiting for the computer to log on. Watching the computer sign in her MSN account automatically, she was rather glad that neither Ann or Tomoka was online at the moment. She didn't wish to chat separately with them, as both parties refused to even _give_ a polite hello.

"_Mou gaman bakka shiteranai yo  
Iitai koto wa iwanakucha_

_Kaerimichi yuugure no BASU tei  
Ochikonda senaka ni Bye Bye Bye_"

Her cell phone was ringing. Sakuno hastily reached out for it, almost knocking her cactus that Syuusuke-nii gave her as a present and without checking the caller ID, answered.

"Moshi-moshi."

"Sakuno! Am I disturbing you?"

Sakuno breathed a sigh of relief. It was Ann, not Tomoka. She didn't she could stand her best friend talking to her all night. Tomoka _is_ a banshee, as much as she denied it when other people called Tomoka that. Not to mention she always talked for a_ really_ long time. Her shrieking would definitely wake everybody up.

"Iie."

"Good, are you online now? I don't want my phone bill to get any higher than it already is. Chat with you?"

"Hai."

The click was expected. Sakuno charged her cell phone before returning to her computer. Ann had already started the conversation.

**#$ANN$#: **Well? Who the heck is this business partner's son at Hyotei?

**^*Sakuno*^: **Err……..

**#$ANN$#: **Come on, Sakuno! Just tell!! I promise, I won't tell anyone else!!!

**^*Sakuno*^: **Don't get mad or anything, Ann-chan. It's Atobe-san.

**#$ANN$#: **Atobe? Oh. OK.

**#$ANN$#: **Wait. WHAT???!!!!

**^*Sakuno*^: **Ann-chan, please.

**#$ANN$#: Sakuno,** you're staying with the biggest jerk of the century who also has an ego that is about the size of_ China__** and**__ Japan merged __**together**_. That is a BIG deal.

**^*Sakuno*^: **But Keigo-nii is nice!

**#$ANN$#: **Keigo-nii?

^***Sakuno*^: **He let me call him that.

**#$ANN$#: **Sakuno, promise me if he ever does anything to you, you'll tell me first thing, OK?

**^*Sakuno*^: **Hai.

**#$ANN$#: **Oops. Damn, it's already 11.00pm. Aniki's gonna kill me. Sorry Sakuno, ja!

**^*Sakuno*^: **Ja.

Sakuno signed out of her account and switched off her computer, collapsing onto her bed with a sigh. Baking a cake especially for her grandmother was tiring. Since it _was_ her grandmother after all, Sakuno had been so careful with it. The three cooks in the kitchen were surprised when she stepped in and asked if she could bake a cake. The head cook, Noguchi-san had given her a few tips on how to make it better after she got over her initial shock. After all, rich people generally didn't bother or have the time to make things for other people, resorting to buying instead.

Snuggling up to her pillow, Sakuno fell into a deep and very contented sleep.

*******Atobe*******

Atobe was worn out, what with dealing with his teammates and entertaining his guests (not that he did much anyway, Hiyoshi, Shishido, Gakuto and Oshitari had taken a lot of that burden off of him).

He collapsed onto his bigger-than-king-sized bed. Weariness overwhelmed him. He covered his face with one of the pillows, his long groan muffled by it. Atobe always hated having to entertain guests. His narcissistic side wasn't allowed to show at all. He could only content himself with calling himself Ore-sama at these places.

Getting up, he walked outside to his balcony. It was raining. Resting his fingers on the cold glass, the King of Hyotei let out a small sigh. Tomorrow was going to be school again, and he didn't fancy having to deal with his fan girls. They would turn crazy if they ever find out that he was living with Sakuno for the next few months. All this he would try to figure out a solution in the future.

Yes, that's right. He would figure everything out in the future. After all, he wasn't called Atobe Keigo for nothing. With this thought, Atobe drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

*********Chapter End*******

* * *

**

**A/N: This went totally off course. Quite a few moments of Atobe wishing to kill his teammates. I couldn't help torturing poor Tama-kun though. But I still can't believe I wrote a total of 10 pages for this chapter. I was on crack, then I started reading angst while writing this…… So I think you can understand the rest of it, yeah. Review please!!**


	6. First Day Part 1

**Disclaimer: See 1****st**** chapter.**

**unsigneds violent sister: No, I didn't mean Mizuki. **

*********Chapter Start*********

Monday dawned bright and early. Sakuno awoke from her slumber by her alarm clock ringing shrilly. Sakuno got up slowly, for she was not a morning person. Stumbling to her window, she pushed back the curtains, allowing the sun to shine cheerily in her room. Rubbing her eyes while yawning, Sakuno proceeded to shower.

When she changed into her new school uniform though, Sakuno stopped to admire the girl in her mirror. She looked nothing like Sakuno, but it was Sakuno. Her long auburn hair that was past the waist seemed to enhance the pale porcelain-like face. The amber eyes shined, but with what, Sakuno didn't know. Braiding her hair quickly, Sakuno clipped up a few stray strands of her hair. Smoothing out her uniform and failing miserably at tying the red silk fabric, Sakuno gave a short sigh.

She walked down the stairs quickly, wanting to find someone and ask how to tie it. She stopped short at the sight of Atobe. He was already dressed, and was busily talking on his cell phone. Without stopping his conversation at all, he motioned for Sakuno to go near and deftly tied the tie for her using his free hand. Waving his hand as a signal for her to start breakfast, Atobe wrapped up his conversation quickly with whoever it was on the phone.

Sakuno had already started to spear her prawn salad. Atobe sat down elegantly, whilst his mind skimmed through what he was going to do today. _'Have tennis practice, assign Shishido, Oshitari and Gakuto extra laps for what they did, bring Sakuno to class just in case she gets lost, practice the speech for the next carnival, go to class, go against Andou and Keiko's plans for the damned carnival, get back to class, have tennis practice, go home and rest.'_

Breakfast was over pretty quickly, since Sakuno didn't really had the appetite and Atobe was thinking too much to really eat anyway. They started off, and they reached the school grounds with no interruptions. Sakuno was really puzzled though when Atobe told her to not go to class early, like she originally intended to.

"But why?"

Atobe sighed. She had listened to his request, accepted it, but she wasn't about to let it drop without asking the reason why. Atobe debated rather seriously with himself on whether to tell her the full truth or just let things slide. Thankfully, Oshitari and Gakuto had chosen this moment to come up and start talking/ complimenting Sakuno on how nice she looked in the Hyotei school uniform. Sakuno blushed, stuttering that she didn't look cute or anything. Oshitari disagreed totally with this.

The quartet made their way to the tennis courts, with Atobe disappearing to look for Sakaki-sensei first. Sakuno sat down at a grassy patch, and started reading her new English textbook. It was harder than Seigaku's. Sakuno groaned silently to herself, wondering how on earth she was going to be able to keep up. She wasn't too worried about the other subjects; she had always gotten marks above nineties in every subject except English. Sakuno gave up on trying to cram a bit more knowledge into her head within 30 minutes. English just never came to her. She sat up, hugging her legs to her chest, watching the students play.

Atobe was back, and Sakaki-sensei was with him as well. None of the players stopped, until Atobe called for them to gather. Sakuno watched, intrigued. Only when Atobe mentioned the Kantou tournaments did Sakuno remember that Hyotei would probably go up against Seigaku during one of their matches. After all, Hyotei had gotten fifth place – and into the Kantou tournament – after they lost to Fudomine in the quarter-finals. A short speech to motivate the students to work harder than ever, and with that, the school bell signaling that class was going to start in five minutes rang.

Sakuno got up, brushing her skirt for imaginary dust and picking up her bag. She was somewhat surprised when Atobe joined her.

"Keigo-nii? Don't you have your own classes to go?"

"Aa. But I have to go to the student council's room for a meeting first."

"Then shouldn't you go there now?"

"Keiko and Andou, the joint vice presidents said they were going to be late anyways. So I shall walk you to class first, since the student council's room is in that block as well. "

The note of utter finality in his voice stopped Sakuno from raising any further objections. The rest of the walk was held in complete silence. Telling her to be careful and leaving her at the door of her classroom, class 1-D, Atobe left. Sakuno gave a scared glance in his direction. She peered into the classroom through the window cautiously. The students in there were making quite a din, and no teacher was present. Sakuno jumped when she felt someone tapping her shoulder. She turned to see a young female teacher. The teacher had shoulder-length glossy, black hair. Her oval-shaped face was fitted with a pair of dark-green glasses that framed her warm golden-brown eyes. She had a nice smile, Sakuno noted.

"Are you Ryuuzaki-chan? Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm your homeroom, Maths and English teacher, Hanabusa Yuko. Call me Yuko-sensei. Wait outside here for a minute please, when I call you to come in, then come in."

Sakuno nodded, a bit relieved. Yuko-sensei seemed like a nice teacher. Hopefully she would give out extra coaching and such when asked. Sakuno didn't want to constantly bother Atobe about her homework.

She tried to press closer, listening to Yuko-sensei. The class was still considerably noisy, even though the noise level had gone down quite a bit.

"Class, I told you last week that you were going to have a new classmate right? Well, she's here today. I want you all to be nice to her, okay? Ryuuzaki-chan, please come in now."

Trembling, Sakuno pushed open the door, her head bowed down.

"Ryuuzaki-chan, come here and introduce yourself to your class."

"H-hai."

The class were already starting to chatter. Sakuno got snippets of the whispers among the students.

"Ryuuzaki? The name sounds familiar……."

"Isn't she the one that was with Atobe-sama on Saturday?"

"The one Hihara-senpai called a slut? Her? No way! She's so cute! Not to mention she's so shy."

"Maybe she _looks_ shy, but is actually a whore?"

"How on earth can she keep braids that long?"

"Hmph. She had better not be after Atobe-sama! I won't let her!"

Yuko-sensei was smiling, but it had an unnatural look. Sakuno shivered. Yuko-sensei's smile looked a lot like Fuji-senpai's when he was mad. The sadistic aura was definitely there as well.

"Class? I believe you should be quiet when the teacher is standing in front. Also, none of you want to make a bad impression on Ryuuzaki-chan, now _do_ you?"

"HAI!"

The panic was evident. Yuko-sensei, though, was smiling happily and the sadistic aura was already gone. She turned to Sakuno, motioning her to introduce herself.

Sakuno did a 90 degree bow, before introducing herself.

"Ohayou gozaimasu! Watashi wa Ryuuzaki Sakuno desu. Douzo yoroshiku."

"Okay, Sakuno. Sit there, the corner desk. I'm sure you know that you will have to do a test first, so that the teachers will know how far along and how good you are in your studies. Do your best."

"Hai."

Sakuno started to walk somewhat quickly to her desk, wanting to avoid the curious glances thrown in her direction. And she tripped over her own feet in her haste. Flushing when her new classmates started laughing.

"I doubt she'd be the sort of girl that Atobe-sama would like. How clumsy!"

The snide remark hurt Sakuno. It wasn't the first time someone directed an insult at her; she had plenty of insults thrown at her when she was in Seishun, mainly because she was friends with Ryoma. There were even times when groups of girls would gang up against her. But normally Tomo-chan or someone else would find her and save her then. _'I'm at a new school now. Not to mention I'm going to be thirteen next year. I can't expect Tomo-chan or anyone else to always save me. I should stand on my own two feet.' _

Holding up her head, Sakuno continued to walk towards her seat, the whole time chanting in her mind _'I will not let these petty insults hurt me. I will not let these petty insults hurt me.'_ The students resumed what they were doing. She sat down at her appointed desk, just wondering why on earth did she agree to her parents request. Watching everyone around her talking, chatting so care freely only made her miss Tomoka, Ryoma and her other friends from Seigaku even more.

Sakuno got out her sketchbook. Turning to the window, she started drawing. Everything else seemed to fade. She always got this feeling whenever she started drawing. And she always wondered if Ryoma and senpai-tachi felt the same way whenever they played tennis.

"That's a nice sketch you got there!"

Sakuno snapped out of her reverie. Glancing up, she stared at the speaker. Two girls were standing in front of her. One of them had waist-length black hair, the other short dark blue hair. The long-haired one was grinning. The other was inspecting her critically.

"Gomen. Did I interrupt you? But I really haven't seen anybody sketch so beautifully before. You should join the art club!"

"Hm, you should join the art competition. But there will be tough competitors. But anyway, what we wanted to ask was, is it true?"

Sakuno was speechless. Two people had just casually walked over and complimented her sketch, and then asked a question that Sakuno didn't even know. The short-haired girl was looking at her up and down. The black-haired girl was smiling. The short-haired girl elbowed the other in the stomach then said.

"Sorry. We didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Imai Ami, and this dolt is my best friend, Hino Kiseki. But is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"Is it true that you were with Atobe-sama on Saturday?"

"H-hai. He offered to show me around the school."

Kiseki let out a low whistle. "God, you must have a lot of guts. If _anybody_ from the Atobe-sama fan club finds out about this, you can practically die." Sakuno spoke up miserably at this. "A lot of them already know anyway. I'm just waiting to be maimed."

"Hmph. Well, Misaki's definitely going to give you a hard time. She's the first year representative of the Atobe Keigo fanclub. And, she's in our class."

"Anou……I thought almost all of the girls in Hyotei were Atobe-senpai's fans?"

Ami gave a small snort.

"Not all of us are, you know. The reason you see so many students in matches that are past the states is because the school ultimately presses on 'unity'. But anybody who's been in the campus wouldn't believe it. Girls get into catfights and screaming matches every time when it's clubs and society's. Personally, I think Ohtori-senpai would be a better choice, ten times over."

Kiseki gave a small laugh.

"She's more of an Ohtori fan girl than an Atobe fan girl, Sakuno-chan."

"But still, you better be on your guard. If any of those Atobe fan girls who saw you on Saturday recognize you, you're life here will be - "

The shrill ringing of the bell cut off Kiseki's next words. Kiseki and Ami hurried back to their seats, which were conveniently next to each other and a couple of rows down from Sakuno's seat. Yuko-sensei glided down to her seat, handing her a sheaf of papers. Explaining briefly about the test she had to take to determine her level, Yuko told Sakuno that she will also have to sit for tests for the rest of the subjects. The time limit was until the end of the lesson.

After giving a "Good luck!" to Sakuno, Yuko-sensei happily skipped to the front of the class. The Maths lesson started, and Sakuno bent her head down to answer the questions.

"_Name the circumference of a circle."_

And so on. Sakuno diligently answered each and every one of the tests before break. Ami and Kiseki caught up with her again. Sakuno was really surprised. She never had many friends, and those that weren't so good friends like Tomoka and Ann barely talked to her at all. She couldn't blame them. She attracted trouble like a magnet, and nobody liked trouble.

"Come on, Sakuno! The cafeteria's selling spaghetti today, and I love it! I won't forgive you if it's sold out by the time we get down!"

SMACK!

"You moron! Is food more important than friendship? I don't even know why I befriended _you_ in the first place! Sakuno's new, remember? She doesn't know the school as well as we do!"

Ami was giving a long lecture to Kiseki about being nice and polite. Sakuno was hit by nostalgia. It was so like Oishi-senpai telling Momo-senpai and Eiji-senpai to not scarf their food down so quickly or else they were going to be sick. By the time Sakuno reached the cafeteria, there were already a crowd of people. The three of them sat down an empty table first, before Kiseki moved off to buy her food. Sakuno and Ami had brought bentos with them. Kiseki brought back a plate of spaghetti and was about to dig in when a loud shriek was heard.

"Atobe-sama!"

Heads turned immediately. Sakuno turned as well. Atobe, Oshitari and the other members of the student council were walking down the stairs in a group. As expected, Atobe was standing in front. Most of the girls and some of the guys in the cafeteria rushed to hm. With a snap of his fingers, the crowds parted, forming two lines. Sakuno stopped staring when she felt somebody poke her. She turned questioningly and noticed that both Ami and Kiseki were standing.

"Sakuno" Kiseki hissed. "Stand!" Sakuno stood up abruptly. Looking around, she saw that everyone was standing, and their attention was fixed onto the student council. The students all made way for the members of the student council whenever they walked. Even the students that were buying food had all stopped and were staring at the student council members as well.

The student council members sat down at the largest table in the middle of the cafeteria. Only when they sat down did the rest of the students sit down as well. Needless to say, Sakuno was speechless. She was pretty sure nothing like this went on in other schools. Kiseki was grinning at Sakuno's surprised face.

"Don't worry, things are like this at Hyotei. Whether in middle school, high school or university, the student council members are the most respected students in the entire school. All those students that are not seniors have to stand whenever they come in, and only resume sitting when they sit. It's compulsory."

Sakuno nodded, sipping her drink as she did so. "Wow…… Seigaku's nothing like this."

"_No_ school is anything like this, Sakuno-chan."

"Oshitari-senpai!"

Said person gave a lovely smirk, making the girls around the three freshmen swoon at him or glare at them. With a gesture that mirrored, "May I?" Oshitari pulled up a chair, sitting in between Sakuno and Kiseki.

"Senpai, why are you - " "Here?" Oshitari cut off Ami's words. "Actually, I wanted to ask Sakuno-chan for help in a matter. It's only going to take a few seconds, so will you?"

"Anou……."

"It isn't going to take much, just 10 seconds or so. Onegai?"

Suspicion, on Ami's part at least was up. Narrowing her eyes ever so slightly, Ami wondered aloud. "Why?" "We just need to ask Sakuno-chan's opinion on something." "Is it anything perverted, senpai?" Oshitari gave a short sigh. "Of course not. I have no intention of ever scarring Sakuno-chan here, seeing as she's a friend of yours. I would have to spend the rest of my life on another planet. So will you let me borrow her for a minute?" Ami was considering it. Her frown indicated that she still didn't trust Oshitari completely. "Please?"

Ami relented. Sakuno was dragged off (for lack of a better word) by Oshitari to the student council's table. Atobe was sitting at the head of it, and was considerably calm talking with a couple of students, seniors, presumably. Everybody sitting at the table glanced up. Out of reflex Sakuno took a step back, bumping straight into Oshitari. Stammering out an apology that Oshitari waved off almost before it was even out, Sakuno continued to stand.

"You know you're all scaring her?"

Glares were shot at him. Atobe scoffed, putting down his coffee on the table. "Well? What do you think?"

'_Wait a minute, what the heck is going on here? I thought Oshitari-senpai said the student council needed to ask my opinion on something?'_

"She definitely looks the part. The drama club did say they want someone with long hair and big eyes." A short, dark blue-haired girl said.

"NANI?!!"

Atobe raised an elegant eyebrow. "I thought you told her?" Oshitari responded with a smirk. "If I told her the real thing, she wouldn't even want to come here and would start making excuses that someone else would be better suited as the role. Nevertheless, her outburst is still somewhat surprising."

"But really, she does fit the role. What's your name again?" The black-haired girl asked. Oshitari was the one who supplied the answer, since Sakuno was still somewhat overcome with the shock.

"Ryuuzaki Sakuno."

"Ryuuzaki-chan, the drama club really would appreciate it if you joined. They've always been short of people. And this time, you'd really fit the role of the main character of their play. So how about it?"

"But -"

"OKAY! It's settled!! Ryuuzaki-chan will be the star in our next play!!"

"But I didn't -"

"Save your breath, Ryuuzaki-chan. Yahiro won't listen to anyone in this state. It's as if he goes temporarily deaf whenever one problem that's been a major headache for weeks is solved. I'm Tsukimori Rin, by the way."

Sakuno bowed her head slightly. Wondering if most of the Hyotei students were always so sure of themselves and barely listened to others, Sakuno half-heartedly listened to the arguments made by the student council. The distant bell ringing broke up their argument, and Sakuno scurried off to class, thankful to finally be able to escape the scrutinizing glares of several members of the student body.

The lessons before lunch passed by uneventfully for Sakuno, save for the numerous glances sent her way all the while during class. To say that Sakuno was thankful that lunch was here would be an understatement. The glances were not mere glances, just so you know. The jealousy and anger within those 'glances' was quite evident, even to Sakuno, who was more often than not a bit oblivious to her surroundings.

Not wishing to disturb Ami and Kiseki who were both chatting away with other friends at a table, Sakuno wandered outside the cafeteria and into the school grounds, staying close for fear of losing her way again. Walking around, Sakuno sat down at a shady cherry blossom tree. Opening her bento, Sakuno took her time eating it. The gentle breeze was calming. Sakuno closed her eyes peacefully, when she heard a gentle snoring somewhere near her. Standing up and going around the tree, she wasn't surprised to find Jirou there. From the looks of it, he seemed to be having quite a nice dream as well. What Sakuno didn't suspect at all, was that Jirou would be able to somehow grab her and pull her down on the ground. Cuddling up against her wasn't expected as well. Sakuno tried to wriggle out, but Jirou's grip on her hand was strong.

Sakuno lightly shook Jirou's shoulder, only to have him cuddling closer to her even more. Needless to say she was uncomfortable with the close proximity. Blushing, Sakuno even caught Jirou mumbling something like 'pillow-chan'.

'_Mou, what should I do now? I don't think Jirou-senpai is going to wake up soon. Even though I finished lunch already, I don't want to have to face __**Jirou-senpai's **__fangirls. Keigo-nii's fangirls are already bad enough.'_

"Sakuno-chan?"

Sakuno looked up, relieved to find a familiar face staring at her. Ohtori Choutarou was gazing down at her, his gray eyes full of confusion. The sight of Jirou-senpai holding her hand in his sleep must be quite strange after all.

"Senpai, can you help? I've tried, but Jirou-senpai just won't wake up."

Choutarou nodded, breathed in, and plugging his ears before whispering something in Jirou's ear.

A pause.

"SUGEE! MARUI-SAMA IS HERE? WHERE IS HE? WHERE? WHERE?! CHOUTA-KUN, TELL ME!~"

Jirou had finally let go of Sakuno's hand, but was now hovering and shrieking at poor Choutarou, who had resorted to the 'last but 100% guranteed to work attempt at making Jirou wake up' way. Bluff to him that Marui is somewhere around.

"Jirou-senpai!"

"SA-CHAN! TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME!! WHERE HAVE YOU SEEN MARUI-SAMA??"

"Jirou-senpai, Marui-san isn't here at all."

Choutarou was tiredly rubbing his ears, attempting to soothe them. Jirou's fan-girly shirek was still pounding in them and his head. "I just said that because you were grasping Sakuno-chan's hand rather tightly in your sleep. She couldn't wake you up. And you weren't about to let go."

Jirou quitened down, apologizing repeatedly to Sakuno. When the ruckus was just about to end, another shout came about.

"Oi, Jirou! Why were you screaming so loudly about Marui? He isn't even here!"

A certain doubles player with short cropped hair was sauntering along to where the trio was currently standing. "Yo!"

"Shishido!" "Shishido-san!" "Shishido-senpai!"

Shishido blinked. He wasn't used to hearing three people calling him at the same time, and all with different names as well. "Well? Why did you shriek for Marui? It was so loud that all the students were looking around. Even Atobe looked around, wondering if Rikkai was here."

Jirou gave a pout. "I can't help it if I get excited whenever I hear that Marui-sama is here, okay? I mean, he is my idol after all……."

Shishido gave a dejected shake of his head. "Your over enthusiasm will make him run away from you sooner or later one day. And I don't get what you like about his tennis moves, they're not _that _big a deal. Even that Kikumaru's moves are more eye-catching than his."

Jirou playfully stuck out his tongue. "You won't understand 'cause you're you, Shishi-kun." Shishido gave a twitch. "I'm happy being me."

At that moment, the bell rang. They scattered quickly, not wanting to be late for class. Luckily for Sakuno, since most of the students were always occupied during lunch, so no one saw her and the tennis regulars. Music class was up next. The music class in Hyotei was different from other schools, as it was joined together by two classes to make one class. Different forms were joined together for this. It was a part of the school's belief that students should be more joined together as a team.

Sakuno joined Ami and Kiseki after gathering her books. They briefly explained the joined classes to her, and it was not long before they were ushered in by a short, rather portly teacher who introduced himself to Sakuno as Monsiuer Sauniere. Sakuno almost cried out in surprise when she saw a mushroom-haired martial artist slash tennis player among the group of sophomores that her class were having music with. But what made her flabbergasted was that Monsiuer Sauniere placed her directly in front of Hiyoshi. Sakuno cursed her bad luck under her breath with all the swear words she learnt from Tomo-chan and Ann-chan. It wasn't that she didn't like Hiyoshi-senpai, but she was quite sure that very few of the female population would ever like her now. At least at Seigaku the senpais' didn't mind her a lot, as she had her eyes set on Ryoma-kun.

When the students started singing "Kokiriko-Bushi", Sakuno was startled to hear Hiyoshi's singing voice. She had overheard Shishido and Gakuo jeer at Hiyoshi's singing, she discarded it as a joke, even when Hiyoshi had flushed slightly. Hiyoshi was actually quite a good singer. This led her to wonder why her senpais would make fun of Hiyoshi-senpai's singing ability. Ignoring it as a guy thing, Sakuno continued enjoying her music lesson, singing as loudly as she dared, forgetting all her troubles for the moment.

After the music lesson, Sakuno once again joined Ami and Kiseki. She didn't miss the glare the red-headed Misaki sent her way though. The glare itself had sent chills down Sakuno's spine. It seemed otherwordly, somehow or other. _'Mou, I know she's Keigo-nii's fangirl, but is there really any need to hate me that much just because Keigo-nii showed me around the school? I've already got more enemies than I had in Seigaku and it's only the first day of school here!' _

"Sakuno-chan, what are you thinking about? You should honestly stop spacing out so much, you know! One day you're going to end up in an accident because of it."

"Iie. I wasn't thinking of anything much. Just thinking what sort of club I'd join here."

Ami interjected. "Join the art club! You obviously have talent, and Himura-sensei, even though she's a grouch and not many students or staff like her, she is a good teacher. She'll bring out your talent to it's full potential. What's more, I'm in that club as well. You'll have a friend there. But you'll have to wait for a week since you still have to take all those exams."

"Anou, isn't it a bit unusual that a student arrives in Hyotei when it's already been about a month since school started?"

Kiseki shook her head. "Not really. A lot of the students here go overseas often during the holidays, and some miss entire semesters. That's why Hyotei always have students who just entered or returned to the school to take exams. That way, if the student is too advanced or is unable to keep up with the work, they'll be upgraded or degraded according to their standard. But you don't need to worry, since you've been studying in Seigaku. Seigaku's level is almost like ours, except that our level of English is much higher. Ah, I forgot. If a student is weak in one subject, that student will be sent to remedial class."

Sakuno groaned inwardly. Her English marks at Seigaku had only been a "B", and she hadn't even taken the English exam here at Hyotei yet. All she could hope for was that she wouldn't need to take those remedial classes. It would seriously cut into her free time, and she'd have to rearrange all her tuition classes as well as violin lessons around it as well. All she could do now was hope that she's do well on it.

English came immediately after Music, Yuko-sensei was already in class by the time the students returned. Sakuno tentatively waited for Yuko-sensei to give her the papers.

"_Choose or right out the best answer for all of the forty questions listed here._

_1. Daniel was _____ by the principal for accidentally breaking a glass window._

'_Mou, what am I going to do? I don't even understand two of the words here, and this is only the first question!'_

Tension and frustration mounted high for Sakuno, as she was barely able to understand more than half of the questions on her test. She thanked kami-sama that English was the last period; she honestly needed some rest after taking all those exams. Perhaps drawing would help, since she had to wait for Keigo-nii, she might as well sketch the school. It might help her in remembering the corridors to her various classes so that she wouldn't need other people's help to get to class. Sakuno walked around, settling down behind a hedge that gave her a clear view of the west side of the school grounds. A gasp fell from her lips. She couldn't believe it. She had just seen......

* * *

**A/N: Dandandandan! What or who did Sakuno just see? Winners will get……….A big virtual cookie! Yay!**


	7. First Day Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis no Oujisama.

* * *

**

*********Chapter start*******

* * *

**

Sakuno couldn't believe her eyes. A white Fila cap, followed by a head of tall spiky hair and a red-head was visible. '_It couldn't be…'_

Sakuno got up and dashed towards the gates. All coherent thoughts of waiting for Hyotei's tennis practice to end before leaving school left her mind. The only thing she had to do now was to make sure that they were not the people she thought they were. After all, why would they come here? There was absolutely no reason to. Sakuno doubted her grandmother was so protective that she'd send her students over to check up on her, even though it was her first day in her new school. But still, she thought, her heart warming, even if her grandmother did, she couldn't very well blame her now could she? In her haste, she bumped into someone which sent her falling down onto the pavement. She closed her eyes, silently praying that the person she bumped into wasn't who she thought.

"Oi, Echizen! Why did you go and bump into a girl, huh?"

"Nya ochibi! You should apologize to her already!"

"Che, you're too noisy, Momo-senpai, Eiji-senpai."

Sakuno squeezed her eyes shut. She knew it was no use praying now; after all, those voices were ones that she had heard daily for the past few months. And she knew the owners of those voices so well.

Echizen Ryoma, cocky tennis prodigy of Seishun Gakuen on the other hand, was in a state of mild annoyance. He had been picked out by Ryuuzaki-sensei to deliver a letter to Sakaki-sensei, the coach of Hyotei Gakuen's tennis club. His ever-loving senpais, namely Kikumaru Eiji and Momoshiro Takeshi had decided to accompany him to Hyotei. But he knew that the main reason they did that was because they wanted to see Sakuno. Not to mention spy on Hyotei's training session. Ryoma had asked why the heck they would want to do something like that, and Eiji replied in that somewhat annoying sing-song voice of his. "Nya, ochibi-chan! _We_ have to know what our rival school is up to! We're bound to have to go up against them you know! Hyotei did get fifth place in the Tokyo Tournament!" After that, his two senpai's had, annoyingly started cat-calling and saying that the reason he didn't complain about the task to Ryuuzaki-sensei was because he would be able to see Sakuno-chan. Well, in truth, that was part of the reason Ryoma didn't complain. The other part was that the school was considerably close to his mother's office, and seeing that he didn't need to waste even more of his pocket money for transportation fees, he agreed to it without complaint.

When he looked up, he definitely didn't expect to see a familiar face. And familiar twin braids, one of which had accidentally gotten itself ensnared in a nearby branch and the other was unconsciously gripped in his hand. _'Ryuuzaki……'_

'_Baka Sakuno! Clumsy Sakuno!' _Sakuno had squeezed her eyes shut. Upon decided, Sakuno slowly opened her chocolate-tainted amber eyes.

-

And directly gazed into the hazel-gold eyes of Echizen Ryoma. Her breath hitched in her throat. To think, that she bumped into her crush and gotten his uniform dirty as well……The thought was too embarrassing, though Sakuno was quite sure that Ryoma was used to her clumsiness by now. Before she was able to open her mouth and say out sorry, she was jumped on by an overenthusiastic Eiji. His loud greetings weren't heard clearly, for Sakuno, being partially choked by Eiji could barely breathe, let alone hear.

"Oi, what are Seigaku doing here?" "Sakuno-chan?"

Sakuno gave a backward glance, horrified to see that around half of the Hyotei tennis team regulars were standing there, watching the exchange between her former senpais and Ryoma-kun. "Senpai…..."

Eiji released his tight embrace on Sakuno, but Ryoma didn't let go of her braid. He continued to glare at the Hyotei regulars, mainly Choutarou who had called Sakuno as Sakuno-chan. He didn't like it. Not one bit. Even _he _didn't call her that, and out of all her friends who were guys, he was the closest to her. Only overly affectionate guys like Eiji-senpai called her as Sakuno-chan. His normally cold hazel-gold eyes had a spark in them.

"Are you Hyotei's tennis regulars?"

"So what if we are?" Gakuto's tone had switched to an arrogant one. The sneering look on his face wasn't very pleasant either. Momoshiro bristled. "Oi, there's no need for you to act so arrogant is there? Yarou……"

Sakuno was at lost at what to do. Her seniors from two different schools were about to start a cat fight which would probably turn ugly, and no one would be able to stop them. The only three who _could_, were unfortunately not here.

"What are you doing, ahn? Ore-sama leaves you alone for not more than five minutes and you already start a brawl?" Glasses flashed. "For once, I agree with Atobe."

Sakuno looked up, relieved that she didn't need to do anything to stop a possible fight between her senpais. Up till now, she hadn't noticed that Ryoma's hand was still grasping her braid. But quite a few others had noticed it, of course. Atobe let his eyes linger on the captured braid for a second longer before turning his attention to the Hyotei regulars excluding himself, Oshitari and Kabaji. Hiyoshi wasn't there for he had to go to a last minute meeting amongst the students who were part of the school newspaper's committee.

"Tomorrow, all of you will be running 30 laps. First and foremost because of provoking students from other schools." turning his back on the regulars, he surveyed the Seigaku students. Sakuno was still frozen at her spot. "What are Seigaku doing here? Are you here to give a message?"

Momoshiro, the first to recover, responded. "Hai. Echizen has the letter."

Atobe turned to gaze at the freshman while putting out his hand. Tales of Echizen Ryoma had already reached him. The famed prodigy of Seishun Gakuen just sullenly glared at the silver-gray haired diva. He finally let go, reaching into his bag for the letter. Ryoma handed the letter over, his glare challenging. He left immediately after handing the letter over, not sparing a backward glance.

Sakuno was downcast. Atobe didn't say anything, merely helped her up whilst Oshitari gave the rest of his teammates a severe scolding, even though he wasn't even vice-captain. _'Then, again, unofficially he is.'_ Shishido didn't even listen to him. He had tuned out most of the lecture given, and focused on replaying the events that had happened earlier.

'_Seigaku huh? They didn't seem like a very strong bunch to me, even though I saw those matches between us and them last year. Their vice-captain then – Tezuka, was it? – beat our captain. But then again, Atobe, also vice-captain last year beat _their_ captain. I hear they're a stronger bunch this year. Wonder if it's true.'_

"Shishido-san!"

Shishido broke out of his reverie. As expected, it was Choutarou who had called him. Turning around, he noticed that everyone else had already left, and the only people visible now were Atobe and Sakuno, and even they were a long way down the road. Choutarou was standing beside him, patiently waiting for him.

The Silver Pair walked back home together as they always did, stopping at the bookstore along the way. Shishido because he wanted to buy the newest issue of Shonen Jump, Choutarou because he wanted to check if the new violins book his mother ordered had arrived yet. Shishido glanced at the cover.

"5th grade violin pieces? Does your mom have a new student?"

Choutarou nodded in confirmation. "Kaa-chan did say that. Apparently her new pupil used to learn the violin. And she's quite talented, that's why Kaa-chan agreed to take her on, instead of the usual students she teaches from the 1st grade."

Shishido snorted. "Must be a first for her."

Choutarou nodded. "It is. And her new pupil will be coming on Friday. Kaa-chan also said that you can sleep over this Friday, if you want to, that is."

Shishido gave an absent-minded nod. He had been staying over so many times at Choutarou's house that it could practically be called his second home. Having a rich boyfriend whose family owned a large part of the Ohtori Group of Companies shares did have its perks. His parents didn't really bother, as long as he came back for at least an hour or two a day.

* * *

********* Night, around 9.30pm – Ryuuzaki mansion *******

* * *

**

"Sakuno~"

Sakuno, concentrating on her Maths tuition homework, didn't really listen to her mother. "Hai?" she answered rather impatiently.

"Sakuno, I found an excellent violin teacher for you! And you're so lucky, since she only teaches that she has thought since their first or second grade! You should take back your violin lessons you know; you're already up till the 5th grade. Just 3 more grades then you don't need to go for violin lessons anymore!"

Sakuno, whirled around. "Kaa-san? What did you say?"

Ringo gave an aggravated sigh. "Sakuno, weren't you listening? I said, you're going to continue your violin lessons. And your new teacher is excellent, in fact, we were lucky to get her to teach you."

Sakuno gave a sigh. "Kaa-san, next time, _please_ tell me when you're going to sign me up for something. I might not have free time then you know."

Ringo smiled radiantly. "That's why I asked Keigo-kun about your schedule! I put it on Friday 6.30pm. Of course, that's only temporary. You can set the time and date for your classes with your teacher after the first lesson. And go to your room now. Take a rest. Tomorrow's only your second day of school; you don't need to work so hard for this week."

Sakuno nodded. "Arigatou, okaasan."

After clearing her stuff, she headed to her room. She had just thrown herself onto her queen-sized bed when her cell phone rang.

"_Hitohira no hanabira ga yurete iru boku no tonari de ima  
Machigatta koi datta sonna koto omoitaku wa nai" *_

"Moshi-moshi?"

"SAKUNO~"

Sakuno winced at the loud voice of her best friend. "Tomo-chan."

"Sakuno, how are you? It's been three whole days since I last contacted you! How are you at Hyotei? Did anyone dare to hurt you? If so, I'll go over there and give them a piece of my mind!"

"Tomo-chan, I appreciate your concern, but really, I'm fine."

Tomoka gave a disbelieving snort. "Really? You know the rumours of Hyotei. How vicious all those girls are, especially when it comes to that Atobe guy."

"Anou, Tomo-chan……"

"Yes?"

"I'm sure I'll be fine. So don't worry so much, okay?"

"_Hitohira no hanabira ga yurete iru boku no tonari de ima  
Machigatta koi datta sonna koto omoitaku wa nai " _

Sakuno looked at her phone. "It's Ann-chan. I'll put her through."

Click. "Sakuno? Is that you? How are you at Hyotei?"

"She _says_ she's fine, but I don't believe her one bit. Who knows what's going to happen if she happens to run in with that Atobe guy from Hyotei?"

Ann's eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "You're here as well? And what do you mean by that? Isn't he living with her right now? I would think at the very least he'd stop the students from doing anything bad to her."

"NANI?!"

Tomoka's shrill volume made Sakuno drop her phone onto her bed, using her pillow to cover her ears in the process.

"GOD! Stop screaming you crazy banshee! Didn't she tell you about this?"

"I was going to, but then you called, Ann-chan."

"Oh. Sorry."

"WHAT? HOW COME YOU TOLD HER AND NOT ME? _(Tomoka covered her cell phone - HOLD IT! I'M TALKING HERE!)_ Damn, I have to go now. My mother's calling me. We'll talk tomorrow, Sakuno."

Click. And Tomoka was off the line. Sakuno could practically hear Ann tapping her feet on the floor, waiting for a synopsis of sorts of her first day at school.

"Well, Sakuno? I'm sure you know what I want you to tell me."

Sakuno relented, telling her everything that had happened, from the glares sent to her by Atobe's fan girls, to the happenings in the cafeteria, and even the after-school meeting with her Seigaku-senpais. When she ended, Ann had a tough time processing everything.

"I can't _believe_ how _arrogant_ Hyotei is!"

Ann's voice barely suppressed the emotions running high through her. Anger. Frustration. Indignity. Sakuno was quite sure if she said something now, it would only further anger Ann.

"I can't _believe_ it! Who the hell do they think they are?! To make the entire school's students stand when they enter a room, just because they're the student council? What sort of _twisted_ school _is_ this?!"

Hurriedly, Sakuno cut off the line.

"Ann-chan, gomen. I have to go now."

And Sakuno cut the line off, leaving Ann to continue complaining and ranting on the phone to absolutely no one. Eyes starting to close, Sakuno only wondered why her grandmother wanted to send Ryoma-kun, of all people to deliver a message to the tennis coach of Hyotei.

* * *

*********Echizen Ryoma*******

* * *

**

Echizen Ryoma was furious. Very furious. And the source of all that anger? A certain twin-braided girl with beautiful amber eyes and long brown hair who's his tennis coach's granddaughter and goes by the name of Ryuuzaki Sakuno.

He had walked into his mother's office after giving his name to the receptionist. The numerous exclamations of what a cute boy he was when he passed the employees of his mother's firm only made him scowl far more fiercely than normal.

Echizen Rinko, for all her husband protests, is in nature a sweet and lovable person. Of course, one mustn't forget that she has a jealous streak when it comes to her husband. She is also very attentive when it comes to her sons. Especially the younger, since he had temper-management problems. So when she heard a loud slamming of her door, she looked up, fully prepared to ask whichever employee that came in what had possessed them to slam the door so hard. She stopped short however, at the sight of her son with a black aura surrounding him. He sat himself down on the loveseat for clients, and muttered a near inaudible "Konnichiwa".

She wondered what it was that could make her son so upset, from losing a tennis match to his father to getting embarrassed by his father in public to his father forcing him to read all those porn magazines of his. Yes, Echizen Rinko trusted her husband to take care of her son, not that he needed much taking care of, but still, Ryoma was a young boy of 12, after all. Her husband's_ unhealthy _habits were particularly bothersome and she had initially given Ryoma Karupin so that her husband wouldn't continually nag her son to join him in reading those porn magazines because he has too much free time. Even though she regularly got rid of her husbands porn magazines, they were still commonly found around the house in places where she would've never guessed. And if anything got Ryoma into a bad mood, she always blamed it onto her husband. Why? Because it was the easiest thing to do, that's why. And normally the cause of his bad tempers were her husband.

But something was off. In addition to the black aura, there seemed to be something else. Jealousy, it seemed. Unknown to her son, Echizen Rinko gave a smirk. The smirk that he often gave to someone that he was sure he could beat without any effort at all.

'_Jealous? Ryoma jealous of someone? I highly doubt it's concerning tennis skills this time. A girl perhaps? But question is, who?'

* * *

_

**********Oshitari Yuushi*******

* * *

**

"Yuushi-kun, that's not the way you should be playing 'Canon in D'."

Oshitari stopped. He knew that he should be concentrating solely on the piece, but his mind kept wondering back to the incident after school. The burning, jealous look in the young boy who was grasping Sakuno's braid, and Atobe's seemingly indifferent look. There was something strange in Atobe's eyes. Not jealousy or something of the sort, but more of a type of protectiveness, like how one would give a loved pet.

He gave a dejected sigh. If Atobe wasn't going to feel anything more for Sakuno other than brotherly, the rest of the school year wasn't going to be so fun anymore. But still, Sakuno was casted as the lead female character in the play, so that should still be interesting. Especially since this play was a romance one.

Oshitari gave a smirk. If he played his cards right, this year _is_ going to be interesting, and his teammates were going to suffer at his hands. Especially his dear, narcissistic buchou. With that thought in his mind, he raised his violin, letting the music flow within his mind and his house.

* * *

********* Mukahi Gakuto *******

* * *

**

"GAKUTO!! YOU GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT AND CLEAN UP THE MESS YOU MADE IN _MY ROOM_!!"

Gakuto scoffed. Hell yeah he was going to listen to his elder sister. As usual, his parents weren't around. And just because they weren't his dear eldest sister was able to lord over the household. He was only a year younger than she was; honestly. Has she ever expected him to take _her_ seriously?

"_GAKUTO!" _

Yup. It seems she does.

"……………………"

"_Uso ni mamireta  
sekai wa ima yuki no naka  
reido no Kiss mo  
moeru you ni atsui no ga  
bokura no shinjitsu"_

"Yuushi?"

Gakuto frowned. Why was Yuushi sending him a message when they just met not more than an hour ago? When he read the message, his face split into a grin. Oh yes, he was going to help in this, no matter what sort of painful ending he'd get in the end…….

"MUKAHI GAKUTO!"

And if his sister still thought he was going to listen to her, hell be damned the place he was going to kick her into……

* * *

*********Tachibana Ann*******

* * *

**

Tachibana Ann growled. She hated Kamio at the moment. A LOT. He had the nerve to mess up her chances with a really hot, _really _cute guy earlier. She would've punched Kamio in the face if only she didn't remember at the last minute Kamio was her brother's teammate, and they still needed him for the Kantou tournaments.

She smacked her head with a pillow, putting all the cuss words she had learnt to good use. She was already having enough of a headache at school., what with the number of assignments and homework her crazy teachers gave, and the high expectancy of her senpais for her future tennis competitions. The Fudomine girls' tennis team had a few decent tennis players, and they were already in their semi-finals for the Kantou tournament.

She was slightly happier when talking with Sakuno. At least, until the banshee screamed and Sakuno told her about what had happened at Hyotei.

"Ann? You had better go to sleep now. Don't forget about the exams that are coming up. Oyasumi."

"Oyasumi."

Ignoring her brother's sound advice, Ann logged on to her MSN account, determined to forget all of the worries she was going to face.

* * *

*********Inui Sadaharu*******

* * *

**

The mad data analyst of Seigaku was at it again. He was concocting yet another one of his infamous 'juices'. Smirking evilly, his mind wandered back to his encounter with his fellow teammates.

He had followed – fine, _stalked _– his fellow regulars when they went to Hyotei to deliver the letter. It was a good opportunity for data-gathering! What else could he say? At the same time, he could spy on Hyotei's tennis practice session, if it was still on-going. Then the data collected would be very useful indeed, for they were going to face them sooner or later anyway.

Sadly, the latter part was unable to be fulfilled, but in it's place, he had gotten some highly intriguing data of his fellow teammates. Especially a certain cocky freshman's reaction when Sakuno's new seniors appeared. The one with the blue cap was Shishido Ryou; he got dropped out of the regulars and somehow earned his place back. The red-head was Mukahi Gakuto; the tall silver-haired kid was Ohtori Choutarou. The droopy blonde guy was Akutagawa Jirou, if he wasn't mistaken. He was Hyotei's second best singles player; his volleying techniques were modeled after Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Chuu's Marui Bunta.

Then to his immense delight, out came Hyotei's diva, Atobe Keigo! Cackling happily, Inui still could barely believe the good luck he had. Even though it was only a second longer than an average person would look, that second was still there. Scribbling furiously in his data book, Inui made a mental note to check out what sort of relationship that Sakuno had with him. Then Hyotei's tensai, Oshitari Yuushi gave a lecture to his fellow teammates. They definitely seemed to regard him as vice-captain, even though he wasn't named.

He didn't dare stay long, because Ohtori of Hyotei had sharp ears (1) and would probably hear the scratching of his pen against paper. His hiding place was quite close to them after all. Inui still couldn't quite forget the look in Echizen's eyes. For his junior to act like that, he definitely felt quite a bit for his former kouhai.

* * *

*********Perfect Pair*******

* * *

**

"Mitsu?"

Tezuka looked down to see the normally smiling, eyes-closed tensai staring up at him with his turquoise eyes open. The ever-present smile on his face was gone as well, replaced, instead, by a very worried look. Tezuka was quite certain that if he was a girl, he would practically be squealing at the cute look on Fuji's face right now.

"Mitsu? What's wrong?"

Tezuka shook his head.

"There's nothing wrong. I just thought of something, that's all."

Fuji's smile returned; it was a devious one, this time.

"Were you thinking of me?"

Tezuka blushed slightly. He sputtered a bit on his next words.

"N-no! You're right next to me, why should I?"

"Mitsu! You stuttered! You were, weren't you?"

Fuji with his closed-eyes smile, Tezuka concluded, was stubborn, intelligent, easily jealous, somewhat happy-go-lucky, insane, lovable and a complete mystery to him. Why he had such a boyfriend, he didn't really know himself. Still, Tezuka did love Fuji. And Fuji loved him possessively. Like that one time a couple of fan girls had thrown themselves in front of Tezuka (literally), he had held Tezuka in a vice-grip (amazing how one so slender can make another who is around 15cm taller than him and weighs considerably more drag that other around without so much as breaking a sweat, no?) and literally jumped on him when they reached the empty classroom. And so, it happened that Ryuuzaki Sakuno-chan had accidentally walked in on them while they were kissing somewhat aggressively. Of course, explanations came later after he and Fuji had –ahem- finished their business. Ryuuzaki-sensei's granddaughter though, had caught him off his guard when she apologized repeatedly for intruding on them.

After that, Fuji had asked why she wouldn't exploit them. Her answer had been simple.

'_Fuji-senpai, one shouldn't tell other people secrets of their friends. That would be betraying the person's trust.'_

From then on, Fuji had taken great care to make sure Sakuno wasn't bullied by her senpais, not-so-subtly pushing Ryoma onto her, as he had thought with childish glee that the both of them would make a great couple. Tezuka had intervened half-heartedly, but stopped later when he saw the maniacal gleam in Fuji's eyes, that meant he was not going to stop no matter who was going to stand in his way. Eiji and Momoshiro were also helping.

Sakuno never really realized that Fuji-senpai was the one that started the rumours that Echizen liked her. Nor did she know that he was the cause of fan girl attacks and the reason why those fan girl attacks stopped when she was in Seigaku. Lucky Ryuuzaki-sensei didn't have any proof or idea about who was behind this; Tezuka was quite sure he would be picking up pieces of Fuji if Ryuuzaki-sensei did find out. The "Ryuu" in her name was there for a reason (2). Ryuuzaki-sensei seemed like a fire-breathing dragon when her granddaughter was injured by someone.

"Mitsu!"

Tezuka blinked, startled. He had been thinking so thoroughly that he forgot that he was walking Fuji home after a date.

"You're spacing out so much today after the date. Are you sure there isn't anything wrong?"

"No, just remembering things."

"Sa, I should have expected that. After all, being a model student, member of the student council, captain of the school tennis club and my boyfriend must be taxing, ne?" Giving Tezuka a peck on the cheek as a thank you for walking him home, Fuji lightly skipped to his doorstep, waving merrily at Tezuka and calling out "Sleep tight, ma chéri! See you tomorrow!"

And with that, Fuji Syuusuke stepped into his house, leaving Tezuka to stand there and blink at his eccentric ways.

* * *

********* Misaki Unohana *******

* * *

**

"Misaki-sama, are you ready?"

Misaki, 1st year representative of the Atobe Keigo fan club had long, silky, blonde hair and sharp features. She was of mixed blood, for her mother was French, and her father had French grandparents. Her jade green eyes spoke of intelligence and persuasiveness. Friends, associated, students and adults alike was sure that when she grew up she would become a beauty.

Tonight, she was attending a gathering among some of the elite; royalty, owners of prestigious companies, famous artists, the likes. She called out. "Just give me another minute and I'll be ready."

Trotting out of her room a moment later in her black heels, she ignored her butler's offer of a fur overcoat and strode out to the awaiting white limo purposefully, the picture of pride, arrogance and wealth. "Suzuki, you know where to go, so step on it."

Suzuki complied, far too used to the young heiress's arrogant behavior. Driving silently all the way to La Dérame Hotel, he noted his lady's discontented look on her face. She was spoilt, far too spoilt to his and a lot of people's liking. He had overheard Misaki's friends talking about her. Jeers and insults were thrown at her, and several had made cruel comments about her taste of clothes and personality. Suzuki had at first been quite shocked, then it slowly ebbed away, and he sealed these sort of talks into the part of his mind that pretended he had never experienced, heard, or talked about this. The ugliness of the upper-class had always disgusted him, but that was how they were born.

As he pulled the limousine to a stop and opened the door for his master's daughter, he watched her go up with pity. These people would never know what real life was, he was sure.

* * *

*********Imai Ami*******

* * *

**

"ÁMI!!! PLEASE, GET DOWN HERE AND BABYSIT YOUR BROTHERS! IF I DON'T GO NOW, I'LL BE LATE _AGAIN_ FOR THE MEETING!"

Ami calmly ignored her mother, straightening her books in the bookshelf. She lingered for a moment at a favourite book, _"Chinese Tales Retold"_. Several of the stories in it spoke of children who were filial to their parents, however cruel, selfish, mean they were. Ami pondered over whether to give it to Kiseki. It might hopefully soothe her feelings of resentment towards her parents.

After hearing her mother yell for her for the third time, Ami walked downstairs to a scene of chaos; her younger brothers had managed to smash a window, and their dog was bleeding from walking onto shards of the broken glass. Cautiously treading on the ground to avoid any other bits of glass, Ami made her way to the dog, picking it up and locking it in the kitchen. She then proceeded to treat her brothers' cuts. She convinced them to sit quietly and finish their homework, before cleaning up the place with her mother.

"Ami……"

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry, so sorry for leaving you alone here like this every time."

"Kaa-san, it's okay."

"I know, but I still feel guilty. If your father was still here……."

Ami kept quiet. Her father was a tender topic in the family. His death a couple of years ago had turned their once jovial family into a more solemn one.

After her mother left, Ami sat down on the couch. Her younger brothers were amusing themselves by playing their own games.

"_Ami! Don't worry, your dear, strong father will protect you from all these things! Be gone, evil spirits that haunt my daughter!" _

_HIGH – KICK!_

"_ITAI! AMI-CHAN! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO YOUR OWN FATHER?"_

She missed him a lot. Her mother probably missed him even more than she did. Her father's eccentric, yet jolly ways; how he always greeted her in the morning, at exactly the same time like an alarm clock so she wouldn't be late for school; his generosity that made people admire and love him; and his great love for her mother; whom he had died to save.

She pulled her legs up to her chest, burying her head in it, not letting the tears flow, because she was sure her father would never be happy if he saw her crying.

* * *

*********Hino Kiseki*******

* * *

**

He slammed the door to his room shut, furiously locking it then hurtling one of his shurikens towards the window. The shattering of glass and feeling the slivers of glass embed themselves in his flesh calmed her. The hurt he felt in his body was not yet equivalent of that to the hurt he felt in her heart and mind.

Picking up one of the daggers, he slashed his arm with it. Watching the blood flow to the floor, drenching her snow white carpet and changing it to the same colour of his blood, Kiseki, whose true name was Kana, slumped to the floor, holding her shoulder in her hand. He ignored the screams and shouts of his servants; ignored their movements as they proceeded to move him to the doctor's room on a stretcher; ignored the pain of the medication that the doctor put on him; ignored the medication he told him to take immediately; ignored the dull throbbing of her heart; ignored the memory in his mind that had tore her once happy life apart.

"Kana-sama, if you do not take your medication now, I will get some of the servants to hold you and pry your mouth open and force it down your throat."

Cold, so very cold. His parents never cared for her, so why should he expect a stranger, though a doctor to care for her? The snide remarks that his cousins said loudly, deliberately for him to hear served to make her emotionally detached. His popularity in school was nothing to him; only an outlet so that he did not need to show that 'she' was actually a 'he'. Ami had dented the wall he had set up for himself, to protect himself from the outer world, but she could never fully comprehend the situation. His grandmother, well-respected among those noble clans, after finding out his weak body had made him cross-dress, for she was a firm believer in superstitions.

He had laughed at the irony of his given name. Kana.(3) He was obviously not what his name meant.

Returning to his room, he found that in a mere hour's absence, his room had been cleared back to normal. Only the glass was gone. The cool night wind caressing his face was refreshing. Kana headed into the bathroom, splashing his face with water. Looking at the full moon outside which constantly taunted him to try and break free of this world he was born in, he cursed it. Numerous plans he had made to escape the life he lived all ended in his father's servants dragging him back into that ice-cold household.

For now, all he could do was wait. Wait and plot, until the next time, so he could successfully escape from the Hino clan's roots once and for all.

* * *

********* Chapter End*********

**A/N: I don't understand what the heck happened, since my email account only received like, two reviews on my story, and when I went to reread it the second day after I posted it, I found I had more than two reviews. Thankfully changing email accounts saved it. **

**1) Konomi sensei had made it a fact that Choutarou has sharp ears and perfect pitch in his fanbook, I believe. I got the information from the net of other fans.**

**2) "Ryuu", in Japanese means dragon.**

**3) Kana is a Japanese boy's name which means power.**

**Oh, and on a side note, I was rereading the past chapters I had posted, and Sakuno is actually 12 in this fic, and this is following the normal timeline. I don't think anyone noticed, but just in case, I'm putting it here. The Author's notes will also be permanently moved here. **

**Also, please tell me; I need ideas on the school play that will be playing a big role later on. My friend said doing "Romeo and Juliet" would be better, whilst I thought of doing "A Midsummer's night Dream". So can all of you please vote for which play you would like better? Or if you have any suggestions for other plays to put inside, tell me in a review or PM me. I thank all of you once again for reading this. Arigatou gozaimasu!!**


	8. Author's Notes

Erm……….Hi?

*Screams and cowers behind large boulder as angry mobs flings flaming arrows at authoress.*

I'm really, really, really, really sorry. I know, I'm a pathetic author that deserves to be castrated for filling FF. net with this crap. But I have decided that I'm going to delete this story, and create a new one with the exact same title because I can't stand the slow updates myself. It's going to be posted on New Year, and once again, updates will be slow. Every three months once is the time limit I'm setting for myself, despite how busy I'll be next year with sitting for my national exams.

Once again, I am really sorry. I don't think anybody can be as disappointed at myself as I am now. Thank you all for having stuck with me through this pathetic excuse of a story. And please accept my sincerest apologies. If anyone is fond enough of this story to want to read it again even with the slow updates, then please look out for it at new year.

~Charmane.


End file.
